9. choke their art, i. e. drown each other by rendering their skill in swimming useless. 'Choke' was anciently used of suffocation by water as well as by other means. See Mark v. 13: The herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea . . . . and were choked in the sea.'

Ib. Macdonwald. So the first folio. The other folios have Macdonnell.' He is called by Holinshed Macdowald.'

IO. to that, to that end.

13. Of, altered by Hanmer to 'With.' He and other editors, Pope especially, thought themselves justified in changing whatever was not sanctioned by the usage of their own day. Compare Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii. 22. § 15: 'He is invested of a precedent disposition.' We should now say 'invested with.'

Ib. kerns and gallowglasses. This is from Holinshed. Kerns were lightarmed troops, having only darts, daggers or knives; the gallowglasses had helmet, coat of mail, long sword and axe. See our note on Richard II. ii. 1. 156. The two are mentioned together in 2 Henry VI. iv. 9. 26:

‘A puissant and a mighty power

Of gallowglasses and stout kerns.'

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14. quarrel. This is an emendation first adopted in the text by Hanmer, and suggested independently by Warburton and Johnson. The folios have ' quarry,' which Knight retains, explaining · damned quarry' to mean 'doomed prey'; i. e. the army of Macdonwald, on which fortune smiled deceitfully while betraying them, like Delilah, to their enemies. Fairfax, in his Translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, uses 'quarry' as well as ' quarrel,' for the square-headed bolt of a cross-bow. The word 'quarrel' occurs in Holinshed's account, and is doubtless the right word here.

15. Show'd, appeared. See Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 196: 'And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.'

See also i. 3. 54 of this play.

Ib. all's too weak. We should have expected all was too weak.' The abbreviation 's for 'was' is not used elsewhere by Shakespeare, nor does the use of the historic present, preceded and followed by past tenses, seem at all probable. Pope cut the knot by reading all too weak.'

19. minion, i. e. mignon, darling. See Tempest, iv. 1. 98: 'Mars's hot minion is return'd again,'

and King John, ii. 1. 392:

'Fortune shall cull forth

Out of one side her happy minion.'

So Fairfax, Tasso, Bk. ix. st. 81:

A gentle page

The soldan's minion, darling and delight.'

And Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. i. 4. § 4: 'Adonis, Venus' minion.' 20, 21. Till he faced the slave; Which ne'er, &c. There is some incurable corruption of the text here. For 'Which' Pope reads Who,' Capell 'And.'

21. For shook hands, Mr. J. Bullock suggests slack'd hand.' As the text stands, the meaning is, Macdonwald did not take leave of, nor bid farewell to, his antagonist till Macbeth had slain him. For shake hands' in this

sense, compare Lyly's Euphues, p. 75, ed. Arber: You haue made so large profer of your seruice, and so faire promises of fidelytie, that were I not ouer charie of mine honestie, you woulde inueigle me to shake bandes with chastitie'. But it is probable that some words are omitted, and that 'Macbeth' is the antecedent to 'Which.' It is scarcely necessary to remark that by Shakespeare and his contemporaries which' is frequently used with a masculine or feminine antecedent.

22. nave is, so far as we know, not found in any other passage for 'navel.' Though the two words are etymologically connected, their distinctive difference of meaning seems to have been preserved from very early times, nafu being Anglo-Saxon for the one and nafel for the other. Hanmer, on Warburton's suggestion, read 'nape' for 'nave'; but a passage quoted by Steevens, from Dido Queen of Carthage, gives great support to the old reading:

Then from the navel to the throat at once
He ript old Priam.'

(Act ii. p. 258, ed. Dyce, 1858.)

24. Cousin. Macbeth and Duncan were first cousins, being both grandsons of King Malcolm.

25. As thunder and storm sometimes come from the East, the quarter from which men expect the sunrise, so out of victory a new danger springs. Ib. 'gins, begins. See v. 5. 49.

27. spring, source.

28. Discomfort swells. So the folios. Pope reads 'Discomfort swell'd'; Johnson, 'Discomforts well'd'; Capell, Discomfort wells.' 'Swells' seems the best word, indicating that, instead of a fertilizing stream, a desolating flood had poured from the spring.

30. skipping is an epithet appropriate enough to the rapid movements of the light-armed kerns.

31. Norweyan. So the folio. The spelling is the same i. 3. 95. In Holinshed it is Norwaygian.'

31. surveying vantage. We have the same phrase, in a somewhat different sense, in Richard III. v. 3. 15:

'Let us survey the vantage of the field.'

In the present passage' surveying' must be equivalent to 'perceiving.'

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33, 34. This speech of Duncan's is printed as prose in the folio. The verse may be made regular by pronouncing 'captains' capitains,' as in 3 Henry VI. iv. 7. 30:

'A wise stout captain, and soon persuaded.' Sidney Walker proposed Our captains twain.'

36. sooth, truth. So v. 5. 40, and Henry V. iii. 6. 151, 'To say the sooth.' 37. So they in the folios begins the next line. It seems more harmonious to make it end line 37. In either case we must have an Alexandrine. 37. overcharged with cracks is an awkward phrase, such as grammarians dignify with the title metonymy. The effect is put for the cause,

'cracks' for charges.'

38. Compare Richard II. i. 3. 80:

And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy.'

40. memorize, render famous. Compare Henry VIII. iii. 2. 52: 'From her

Will fall some blessing to this land, which shall

In it be memorized.'

Ib. Golgotha. See Mark xv. 22.

with the skulls of the dead.

Here it means a battle-field strewn

41. tell. Rowe first marked by a dash that the sense is left imperfect. The folios have a colon.

42. So well. We should say 'As well.' Compare Cymbeline, i. 4. 3: 'Expected to prove so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name of.'

44. Exit Sergeant, attended. There is no stage-direction here in the folio. 45. Who. Pope reads ' But who.'

Ib. thane, from the Anglo-Saxon begen, literally, a servant, and then technically, the king's servant, defined to be an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, inferior in rank to an eorl and ealdorman' (Bosworth). Ultimately the rank of thegn become equivalent to that of eorl.

46. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, v. I. 50:

The business of this man looks out of him.'

And in the present play iii. I. 127:

'Your spirits shine through you.'

47. That seems to speak things strange, whose appearance corresponds with the strangeness of his message. Compare i. 5. 27 of this play. For 'seems' various conjectures have been made, as 'teems,'' comes,'' seeks,' 'deems'; but no change is required. For the general sense compare

Richard II. iii. 2. 194:

'Men judge by the complexion of the sky

The state and inclination of the day:
So may you by my dull and heavy eye,
My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.'

49. flout, mock. See Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 327:
'Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ?'

Perhaps Gray had this passage in this mind when he wrote:
Ruin seize thee, ruthless king,

Confusion on thy banners wait,

Though fann'd by conquest's crimson wing

They mock the air with idle state.'

Malone says, quoting King John, v. I. 72,

'Mocking the air with colours idly spread,'

The meaning seems to be, not that the Norweyan banners proudly insulted the sky; but that, the standards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the colours idly flapped about, serving only to cool the conquerors, instead of being proudly displayed by their former possessors.' 'flout the sky' seems better suited to the banners of a triumphant or defiant host. Mr. Keightley reads:

'Where the Norweyan banners

Did flout the sky and fan our people cold.'

50. The folio reads

'Norway himself with terrible numbers

But

as one line. Pope reads with numbers terrible.' The arrangement in the

text was suggested by Sidney Walker. It is however impossible to reduce many lines of this scene to regularity without making unwarrantable changes. 53. The thane of Cawdor was, according to Holinshed (i. 244), 'condemned at Fores of treason against the king committed,' but nothing is there said of his having assisted the Norwegian invaders.

54. Bellona's bridegroom, i. e. Macbeth. The phrase was perhaps suggested to the writer by an imperfect recollection of Virgil's Æneid, iii. 319: Et Bellona manet te pronuba.'

Ib. lapp'd, enfolded, wrapped, clad. See Richard III. ii. 1. 115:

'How he did lap me

Even in his own garments.'

Ib. proof, armour of proof, armour proved and tested. See Romeo and Juliet, i. 1. 216:

'And in strong proof of chastity well-arm'd,'

and Richard II. i. 3. 73:

'Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers.'

55. Confronted him with self comparisons, met the king of Norway in personal conflict to prove which combatant was the better man.

56. This line is punctuated as in Theobald's edition. The folios have 'Point against Point, rebellious Arme 'gainst Arme.'

If the old punctuation be right, rebellious,' being applied to the arm of the loyal combatant, must be taken to mean 'opposing, resisting assault.' But rebel' and its derivatives are used by our author almost invariably in a bad sense, as they are used now.

57. lavish, prodigal, unbounded in the indulgence of passion, insolent. 'A lavish spirit' corresponds nearly to the Greek kópos. Compare 2 Henry IV. iv. 4. 62:

For when his headstrong riot hath no curb

When rage and hot blood are his counsellors,
When means and lavish manners meet together.'

58. That, so that. See i. 7. 8; iv. 3. 6.

59. Sweno. There is near Forres a remarkable monument with runic inscriptions, popularly called 'Sweno's stone,' and supposed to commemorate the defeat of the Norwegians.

Ib. the Norways' must be here put for the Norwegians'.' But perhaps we should read the Norway king.' So in Fairfax's Tasso, Bk. v. st. 57, Gernando is called the Norway prince.'

·

Ib. composition, terms of peace. See Coriolanus, iii. 1. 3:

'And that it was which caused

Our swifter composition.'

61. Saint Colme's Inch, i. e. the Island of Saint Columba, now Inchcolm, lies in the Firth of Forth near the Fife shore. It is about half a mile long

by one third of a mile broad where widest. It is said to have been the residence of St. Columba in the sixth century, and on it are the remains of a monastery. A description of it is given in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 489-528.

62. Ten thousand dollars. Holinshed does not specify the amount. He only says a great sum of gold.' A great anachronism is involved in the mention of dollars here. The dollar was first coined about 1518, in the

Valley of St. Joachim, in Bohemia, whence its name, Joachim's-thaler'; 'thaler,' 'dollar.'

64. bosom interest, close and intimate affection. Compare The Merchant of Venice, iii. 4. 17: Being the bosom lover of my lord,' i. e. being his intimate friend. And King Lear, iv. 5. 26: I know you are of her bosom,' i. e. in her confidence. Interest' means the due part or share which a friend has in the affections of another. Compare Cymbeline, i. 3. 30:

The meaning of the

King Lear, i. 1. 87:

The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honour.'

word is further illustrated. by the use of the verb in

To whose young love

The wines of France and milk of Burgundy

Strive to be interess'd.'

Ib. present, instant. So 'presently' is used for 'instantly,' in conformity with its derivation, from which our modern use of the word departs. So 'by and by,' which first meant 'immediately,' has now come to mean after an interval.' See Matthew xiii. 21: By and by he is offended' (evðùs σkavdaλíferaι) and Luke xxi. 9: The end is not by and by' (our evléws TÒ TéλOS). For 'present,' see Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 223:

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'I will give him a present shrift.'

And 2 Henry IV. iv. 3. 80:

'To York, to present execution.'

For 'presently,' see Matthew xxvi. 53.

Scene III.

2. Steevens quotes the following from A Detection of Damnable Driftes practized by Three Witches, &c. arraigned at Chelmisforde in Essex, 1579: 'Item, also she came on a tyme to the house of one Robert Lathburie ... who dislyking her dealyng, sent her home emptie; but presently after her departure, his hogges fell sicke and died, to the number of twentie.'

5. Munch' was spelt in Shakespeare's time munch' and 'mounch' indifferently. It means 'to chew with closed lips,' and is used in Scotland in the sense of mumbling with toothless gums,' as old people do their food. It is derived probably from the French manger, Latin manducare.

Ib. Give me, that is, give me some, or give it me. Compare Romeo and Juliet, iv. I. 121:

'Give me, give me! O, tell me not of fear!'

Ib. quoth, from the Anglo-Saxon cwæðan, to say, speak, of which the first and third persons singular preterite are cwæð.

6. Aroint thee. This phrase is used again by Shakespeare, King Lear, iii. 4. 129: Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee.' 'Runt' is applied in Scotland and in Suffolk to an obstinate old cow or ill-conditioned woman, and 'Rynt thee' is used by milkmaids in Cheshire to a cow, when she has been milked, to bid her get out of the way. Ray in his Collection of English Words gives Rynt ye: By your leave, stand handsomly. As Rynt you witch, quoth Besse Locket to her mother, Proverb, Chesh.' It is by some connected with the adverb aroume,' meaning

G