MACD. I'll make so bold to call, For 'tis my limited service". [Exit MACDUFF. He does :-he did appoint so3. 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 prophecying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake 9. So, in The Tempest : "There be some sports are painful; and their labour 6 For 'tis my LIMITED service.] So, in Timon: 66 MALONE. Limited, for appointed. for there is boundless theft, "In limited professions." i. e. professions to which people are regularly and legally appointed. STEEVENS. 7 Goes the king FROM hence to-day?] I have supplied the prepositionfrom, for the sake of metre. So, in a former scene, Duncan says, 66 From hence to Inverness," &c. STEEVENS. 8 HE DOES he did appoint so.] The words—he does-are omitted by Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton. But perhaps Shakspeare designed Macbeth to shelter himself under an immediate falshood, till a sudden recollection of guilt restrained his confidence, and unguardedly disposed him to qualify his assertion; as he well knew the King's journey was effectually prevented by his death. A similar trait had occurred in a former scene: "L. M. And when goes hence? "M. To-morrow,- -as he purposes." STEEVENS, Масв. "Twas a rough night. LEN. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. 9 - strange screams of death; And prophecying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events, NEW HATCH'D TO THE WOEFUL TIME. The obscure bird Was feverous, and did shake] These lines, I think, should be rather regulated thus: 66 prophecying with accents terrible, "Of dire combustion and confus'd events. "New-hatch'd to the woeful time, the obscure bird 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 woeful time, that is, should appear in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the prodigies here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into which nature is described as thrown by the perpetration of this horrid murder. JOHNSON. I think Dr. Johnson's regulation of these lines is improper. Prophecying is what is new-hatch'd, and in the metaphor holds the place of the egg. The events are the fruit of such hatching. STEEVENS. I think Steevens has justly explained this passage, but should wish to read-prophecyings in the plural. M. MASON. Dr. Johnson observes, that "a prophecy of an event new-hatch'd seems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a prophecy newhatch'd is a wry expression." The construction suggested by Mr. Steevens meets with the first objection. Yet 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 King Henry IV. Part II. : The which observ'd, a man may prophesy, "With a near aim, of the main chance of things "Such things become the hatch and brood of time." Here certainly it is the thing or event, and not the prophecy, Re-enter MACDUFF. MACD. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence Масв. What is't you say? the life? LEN. Mean you his majesty ? MACD. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; 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 woeful time," means-to suit the woeful time. MALONE. "Was feverous, and did shake." So, in Coriolanus: "Was feverous, and did tremble." STEEVENS. CANNOT Conceive, &c.] The use of the two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is very common in our author. So, in Julius Cæsar, Act III. Se. I. : there is no harm "Intended to your person, nor to no Roman else." STEEVENS. The great doom's image! -Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights, To countenance this horror 2! [Bell rings. What's the business, Enter Lady МАСВЕТН. LADY M. 3 O, gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : The repetition, in a woman's ear, this horror!] Here the old copy adds-Ring the bell. STEEVENS. The subsequent hemistich-" What's the business? "—which completes the metre of the preceding line, without the words "Ring the bell," affords, in my opinion, a strong presumptive proof that these words were only a marginal direction. It should be remembered that the stage directions were formerly often couched in imperative terms: "Draw a knife;"" Play musick;" "Ring the bell:" &c. In the original copy we have here indeed also-Bell rings, as a marginal direction; but this was inserted, I imagine, from the players misconceiving what Shakspeare had in truth set down in his copy as a dramatick direction to the propertyman, ("Ring the bell.") for a part of Macduff's speech; and, to distinguish the direction which they inserted, from the supposed words of the speaker, they departed from the usual imperative form. Throughout the whole of the preceding scene we have constantly an imperative direction to the prompter: "Knock within." I suppose, it was in consequence of an imperfect recollection of this hemistich, that Mr. Pope, having, in his Preface, charged the editors of the first folio with introducing stage-directions into their author's text, in support of his assertion, quotes the following line: "My queen is murder'd :-ring the little bell." a line that is not found in any edition of these plays that I have met with, nor, I believe, in any other book. MALONE. 3 — speak, speak,-] These words, which violate the metre, were probably added by the players, who were of opinion thatspeak, in the following line, demanded such an introduction. STEEVENS. Would murder as it fell .--O Banquo! Banquo! Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And say, it is not so. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. MACB. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant, There's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead; The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.] So, in Hamlet : 66 He would drown the stage with tears, "And cleave the general ear with horrid speech." Again, in The Puritan, 1607: "The punishments that shall follow you in this world, would with horrour kill the ear should hear them related." MALOne. 5 What, in our house?] This is very fine. Had she been innocent, nothing but the murder itself, and not any of its aggravating circumstances, would naturally have affected her. As it was, her business was to appear highly disordered at the news. Therefore, like one who has her thoughts about her, she seeks for an aggravating circumstance, that might be supposed most to affect her personally; not considering, that by placing it there, she discovered rather a concern for herself than for the King. On the contrary, her husband, who had repented the act, and was now labouring under the horrors of a recent murder, in his exclamation, gives all the marks of sorrow for the fact itself. WARBURTON. 6 Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time;] So, in The Winter's Tale : 66 "If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd |