you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devilporter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of

6. you'll] you will Rann.

7. in th' th' Theob. ii, Warb. Johns. H. Rowe. the Cap. Steev. Var. Sing. Knt, Sta. Ktly. in the Coll.

Huds. Dyce, White, Glo. Cla.

7, 10.

Faith...heaven] Italics Sta. 12, 13. Faith...hose] Italics Sta.

8. equivocator] WARBURTON. Meaning a Jesuit. The inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation.

WALKER (Crit., iii, 253). This allusion to the times is certainly unlike Sh. It strengthens Coleridge's hypothesis of the spuriousness of part of this soliloquy. See Appendix, p. 381. ED.

13. hose] WARBURTON. The joke consists in this, that a French hose being very short and strait, a tailor must be master of his trade who could steal anything from thence.

STEEVENS. Warburton said this at random. The French hose (according to Stubbs in his Anatomie of Abuses) were in 1595 much in fashion: The Gallic hosen are made very large and wide, reaching down to their knees only, with three or foure gardes apeece laid down along either hose.'

FARMER. Steevens forgot the uncertainty of French fashions. In The Treasury of Ancient and Modern Times, 1613, we have an account (from Guyon, I suppose) of the old French dresses: 'Mens hose answered in length to their short-skirted doublets; being made close to their limbes, wherein they had no means for pockets.' CLARENDON. Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses (fol. 23 b, ed. 1585) says: 'The Frenche hose are of two diuers makinges, for the common Frenche hose (as they list to call them) containeth length, breadth, and sidenesse sufficient, and is made very rounde. The other contayneth neyther length, breadth, nor sidenesse (being not past a quarter of a yarde side), whereof some be paned, cut, and drawen out with costly ornamentes, with Canions annexed, reaching downe beneath their knees.' In The Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 80, Sh. clearly speaks of the larger kind, the 'round hose' which the Englishman borrows from France, and it is enough to suppose that the tailor merely followed the practice of his trade without exhibiting any special dexterity in stealing. In Hen. V: III, vii, 56, the French hose are wide by comparison.

14. at quiet] CLARENDON. See Judges, xviii, 27: A people that were at quiet and secure.' Compare at friend,' Wint. Tale, V, i, 140. So in Ham., IV, iii, 46, 'at help' is used with the force of an adjective.

all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you remember the porter. [Opens the gate.

Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX.

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,

That you do lie so late?

20

Port. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock: and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke?

Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars him; it sets him on and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

Macd. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on

17. to the] to th' Ff, Dav.+, White.
18. bonfire] Bone-fire Dav.
19. Opens the gate] Mal. opens Cap.
om. Ff, Rowe,+.

22, 23. Prose, Johns. Two lines, Ff. 23-37. of three things...cast him.] of

sleep. H. Rowe.

30. to...to] too...too F.

33

me: but I

31. in a sleep] into a sleep Rowe,+. into sleep Mason. asleep Coll. (MS). 34. on me] o' me Theob. ii, Warb. Johns. Cap. Steev. Var. Sing. Knt, Ktly.

17. primrose] STEEVENS. So, Ham., I, iii, 50, and All's Well, IV, v, 56. 22. second cock] STEEVENS. So in Lear, III, iv, 121. Again in the Twelfth Mery Ieste of the Widow Edith, 1573: The time they pass merely til ten of the clok, Yea, and I shall not lye, till after the first cok.

MALONE. About three o'clock in the morning. See Rom. & Jul., IV, iv, 3. 22, 23. DELIUS. This reply of the Porter's falls into two regular Iambic trimeters, and is correctly so printed in the Folio.

23. provoker] HARRY ROWE. I cannot set up the morality of a puppet-showman against the piety of Dr. Johnson, but I will venture to say, that by shortening this conversation, I have done the memory of Sh. no material injury. Too many meretricious weeds grow upon the banks of Avon.

31. in a sleep] STEEVENS. Sh. frequently uses in for into. Rich. III: I, ii, 261, and Ib., I, iii, 89.

ELWIN. Thus in Lyly's Euphues:

until time might turn white salt in fine sugar.' Here used in both senses: tricks him into a sleep; and, tricks him in a sleep, that is, by a dream.

WALKER (Crit., iii, 251). This is not more harsh to our ears than smiles his cheek in years,' Love's Lab. Lost, V, ii, 465.

requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.

Macd. Is thy master stirring?

Enter MACBETH.

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

Len. Good morrow, noble sir.
Macb.

Good morrow, both.

40

Not yet.

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb.

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him:

36. up] om. Warb. Johns.

38. SCENE IV. Enter Macduff, lenox, and Porter. Pope, Han.

Enter M.] Coll. After line 37 in Ff, Dav. Rowe. After noble sir, line

40, Pope, +, Rann. After line 39, Cap.
Steev. Var. Sing. Knt, Huds. Sta. Ktly.
Re-enter M. Dyce, after line 39. Enter
M. in his nightgown. Coll. ii (MS).

33. night] MALONE. It is not very easy to ascertain precisely the time when Duncan is murdered. The conversation that passes between Banquo and Macbeth, in II, i, might lead us to suppose that when Banquo retired to rest it was not much after twelve o'clock. The king was then 'abed;' and, immediately after Banquo retires, Lady M. strikes upon the bell, and Macbeth commits the murder. In a few minutes afterwards the knocking at the gate commences, and no time can be supposed to elapse between the second and the third scene, because the Porter gets up in consequence of the knocking: yet here Macduff talks of last night, and says that he was commanded to call timely on the king, and that he fears he has almost overpass'd the hour; and the Porter tells him, 'We were carousing till the second cock;' so that we must suppose it to be now at least six o'clock; for Macduff has already expressed his surprise that the Porter should lie so late. From Lady M.'s words in Act V, One-two-'tis time to do't,' it should seem that the murder was committed at two o'clock, and that hour is certainly not inconsistent with the conversation above referred to between Banquo and his son; but even that hour of two will not correspond with what the Porter and Macduff say in the present scene. I suspect Sh. in fact meant that the murder should be supposed to be committed a little before daybreak, which exactly corresponds with the speech of Macduff now before us, though not so well with the other circumstances already mentioned, or with Lady M.'s desiring her husband to put on his nightgown. Sh., I believe, was led to fix the time of Duncan's murder near the break of day by Holinshed's account of the murder of King Duffe: he was long in his oratorie, and there continued till

it was late in the night.' Donwald's servants enter the chamber where the king laie, a little before cocks crow, where they secretlie cut his throat.'

37. cast] JOHNSON. The equivocation is between cast or throw, as a term of wrestling, and cast or cast up.

STEEVENS. I find a similar play upon words in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: he reels all that he wrought to-day, and he were good now to play at dice, for he casts excellent well.'

I have almost slipp'd the hour.

Macb.

I'll bring you to him. Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;

But yet 'tis one.

Macb. The labour we delight in physics pain.

Len. Goes the king hence to-day?
Macb.

45

[Exit.

He does he did appoint so.

Len. The night has been unruly: where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death, And prophesying, with accents terrible,

43. I have] I've Pope, +, Dyce ii. 46. physics] Pope. Physicks F.F. Physick's F2F

47. This] That Cap. (Correction in Notes ii, 10, b), Rann.

47, 48. I'll...service.] Verse, Han. Prose, Ff, Rowe, +.

49. hence] From hence Steev. reading For...king From...so, two lines.

50

Four

49. He does:] om. Pope, +. 50-52. The...death,] Rowe. lines, ending unruly:...downe,...ayre... Death, Ff, Huds. i.

51. down,] downe. FFF, Rowe,+. 53. And prophesying] And prophesyings Han. [Cap.—' perhaps rightly.'] Rann. Aunts prophesying Warb. conj.

43. slipp'd] CLARENDON. 'Slip' is used transitively with a person for the object in Cymb. IV, iii, 22.

44. trouble] DELIUS. Macduff refers to Macbeth's hospitable reception of Duncan, not to his bringing him to Duncan's chamber. Of the latter service they would hardly speak with so much emphasis.

46. physics] STEEVENS. Affords a cordial to it. So, Wint. Tale, I, i, 43. MALONE. So, Temp. III, i, 1.

SINGER. Physick is defined by Baret, a remedie, an helping or curing.

CLARENDON. The general sentiment here expressed is true, whether 'pain' be understood in its more common sense of

'trouble.' Compare Cymb. III, ii, 34.

suffering,' or as Macbeth means it, of

47. bold to] CLARENDON. So bold as to. Compare 2 Hen. VI: IV, viii, 4. 48. limited] WARBURTON. Appointed.

STEEVENS. So in Timon, IV, iii, 431: For there is boundless theft In limited professions,' i. e. professions to which people are regularly and legally appointed [like the church, the bar, and medicine.—CLARENDON].

CLARENDON. It must be supposed that Macduff was, as we should say, a Lord of the Bedchamber. See Meas. for Meas. IV, ii, 176.

49. He does] STEEVENS. Perhaps Sh. designed Macbeth to shelter himself under an immediate falsehood till a sudden recollection of guilt restrained his confi. dence, and unguardedly disposed him to qualify his assertion. A similar trait occurred in I, v, 58.

53. prophesying] WHITE. Changes in the punctuation of this passage have

C

Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatch'd to the woful time: the obscure bird

55

55-57. New....shake.] Han. Four lines, ending time....Night....fevorous.... shake, Ff. Three, ending time...night. ...shake. Rowe, +, Knt, Huds. i, Sing. ii, Sta.

55. obscure] obscnre F

been proposed from an erroneous supposition that to prophesy must mean,'to foretell. But here, in some parts of the Bible, and in other books of the Elizabethan period (1575-1625, Jacobo I. non obstante), it means to utter strange or important things, to announce solemnly. See Proverbs xxxi, 1, Ezekiel xxxvii, 4, 7, and passim.

CLARENDON. Here used as a verbal noun, in its ordinary sense of 'foretelling.' ABBOTT (2 470). Words in which a light vowel is preceded by a heavy vowel or diphthong are frequently contracted, as power, jewel, doing, going, dying, &c. Also prowess in V, viii, 41. [See also WALKER, Vers. p. 119, to same effect. ED.]

tion avec.

54. combustion] CLARENDON. Used metaphorically for 'social confusion,' as in Hen. VIII: V, iv, 51. Cotgrave has: a tumult; hence; Entrer en combusTo make a stirre, to raise an vprore, to keepe an old coyle against.' Raleigh, in his Discourse of War in General (Works, viii, 276, ed. 1829), says: 'Nevertheless, the Pope's absolving of Richard from that honest oath brought all England into an horrible combustion.' And Milton, Par. Lost, vi, 225, uses the word in the same sense.

55. New hatched] JOHNSON. A prophecy of an event new hatch'd seems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a prophecy new hatch'd is a wry expression. The term new hatch'd is properly applicable to a bird, and that birds of ill omen should be new hatch'd to the woful time, that is, should appear in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the prodigies here mentioned.

HEATH (p. 388). Johnson on review would scarce approve of the owlet hooting from the moment it was hatched, and filling that whole night with its clamours. STEEVENS. Prophesying is what is new hatch'd, and in the metaphor holds the place of the egg. The events are the fruit of such hatching.

MALONE. The following passage in which the same imagery is found, inclines me to believe that our author meant, that new hatch'd should be referred to events, though the events were yet to come. Allowing for his usual inaccuracy with respect to the active and passive participle, the events may be said to be the hatch and brood of time.' See 2 Hen. IV: III, i, 82:

The which observed, a man may prophesy,

With a near aim, of the main chance of things

As yet not come to life, which in their seeds

And weak beginnings lie entreasured.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time.'

Here certainly it is the thing or event, and not the prophecy, which is the hatch of time; but it must be acknowledged, the word 'become' sufficiently marks the future time. If therefore the construction that I have suggested be the true one, hatch'd must be here used for hatching, or in the state of being hatch'd.—To the woful time,' means-to suit the woful time.