DUN. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour BAN. The harvest is your own. DUN. There if I grow, My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow 3.-Sons, kinsmen, thanes, Fletcher, adds some support to Sir William Blackstone's emendation : "I'll speak it freely, always my obedience "And love preserved unto the prince." So also the following words, spoken by Henry Duke of Lancaster to King Richard II. at their interview in the Castle of Flint, (a passage that Shakspeare had certainly read, and perhaps remembered): "My sovereign lorde and kyng, the cause of my coming, at this present, is, [your honour saved,] to have againe restitution of my person, my landes, and heritage, through your favourable licence." Holinshed's Chron. vol. ii. Our author himself also furnishes us with a passage that likewise may serve to confirm this emendation. See The Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. III. : "Save him from danger; do him love and honour." Again, in Twelfth-Night : "What shall you ask of me that I'll deny, Again, in Cymbeline: 66 I something fear my father's wrath, but nothing "(Always reserv'd my holy duty) what "His rage can do on me.' 66 Our poet has used the verb to safe in Antony and Cleopatra : best you saf'd the bringer MALONE. 2 "Out of the host." FULL of growing.] Is, I believe, exuberant, perfect, complete in thy growth. So, in Othello: "What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" MALONE. 3 My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow.] lachrymas non sponte cadentes Effudit, gemitusque expressit pectore læto; And you whose places are the nearest, know, Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine MACB. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful 5 DUN. Non aliter manifesta potens abscondere mentis There was no English translation of Lucan before 1614.-We meet with the same sentiment again in The Winter's Tale: "It seemed sorrow wept to take leave of them, for their joy waded in tears." It is likewise employed in the first scene of Much Ado About Nothing. MALONE. It is thus also that Statius describes the appearance of Argia and Antigone, Theb. iii. 426: 4 Flebile gavisæ- STEEVENS. 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 circumstance of Duncan's visiting Macbeth is supported by history; for, from the Scottish Chronicles, it appears that it was customary for the king to make a progress through his dominions every year. "Inerat ei [Duncano] laudabilis consuetudo regni pertransire regiones semel in anno." Fordun. Scotichron. lib. iv. c. xliv. 66 Singulis annis ad inopum querelas audiendas perlustrabat provincias." Buchan. lib. vii. MALONE. 5 The prince of CUMBERLAND!] So, Holinshed, History of Scotland, p. 171: "Duncan having two sonnes, &c. he made the elder of them, called Malcolme, prince of Cumberland, as it was thereby to appoint him successor in his kingdome immediatlie after his decease. Mackbeth sorely troubled herewith, for that he On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Aside. For in my way it lies. Stars, hide saw by this means his hope sore hindered, (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of bloud unto him should be admitted,) he began to take counsel how he might usurpe the kingdome by force, having a just quarrel so to doe (as he tooke the matter,) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claime, which he might, in time to come, pretend unto the crowne." 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. STEEVENS. The former part of Mr. Steevens's remark is supported by Bellenden's translation of Hector Boethius: "In the mene tyme Kyng Duncane maid his son Malcolme Prince of Cumbir, to signify y he suld regne eftir hym, quhilk was gret displeseir to Makbeth; for it maid plane derogatioun to the thrid weird promittit afore to hym be this weird sisteris. Nochtheles he thoct gif Duncane were slane, he had maist rycht to the croun, because he wes nerest of blud yairto, be tenour of y auld lavis maid eftir the deith of King Fergus, quhen young children wer unable to govern the croun, the nerrest of yair blude sal regne." So also Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarum Hist. lib. vii. : "Duncanus e filia Sibardi reguli Northumbrorum, duos filios genuerat. Ex iis Milcolumbum, vixdum puberem, Cumbriæ præfecit. Id factum ejus Macbethus molestius, quam credi poterat, tulit, eam videlicet moram sibi ratus injectam, ut, priores jam magistratus (juxta visum nocturnum) adeptus, aut omnino a regno excluderetur, aut eo tardius potiretur, cum præfectura Cumbria velut aditus ad supremum magistratum SEMPER esset habitus." It has been asserted by an anonymous writer [Mr. Ritson] that "the crown of Scotland was always hereditary, and that it should seem from the play that Malcolm was the first who had the title of Prince of Cumberland." An extract or two from Hector Boethius will be sufficient relative to these points. In the tenth chapter of the eleventh book of his History we are informed, that some of the friends of Kenneth III. the eightieth King of Scotland, came among the nobles, desiring them to choose Malcolm, the son The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, [Exit. DUN. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant"; 6 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: of Kenneth, to be Lord of Cumbir, "y' he mycht be y' way the better cum to y crown after his faderis deid." Two of the nobles said, it was in the power of Kenneth to make whom he pleased Lord of Cumberland; and Malcolm was accordingly appointed. "Sic thingis done, King Kenneth, be advise of his nobles, abrogat y auld lawis concerning the creation of yair king, and made new lawis in manner as followes: 1. The king beand decessit, his eldest son or his eldest nepot, (notwithstanding quhat sumevir age he be of, and youcht he was born efter his faderis death, sal succede y croun," &c. Notwithstanding this precaution, Malcolm, the eldest son of Kenneth, did not succeed to the throne after the death of his father; for after Kenneth, reigned Constantine, the son of King Culyne. To him succeeded Gryme, who was not the son of Constantine, but the grandson of King Duffe. Gryme, says Boethius, came to Scone, "quhare he was crownit by the tenour of the auld lawis." After the death of Gryme, Malcolm, the son of King Kenneth, whom Boethius frequently calls Prince of Cumberland, became King of Scotland; and to him succeeded Duncan, the son of his eldest daughter. These breaches, however, in the succession, appear to have been occasioned by violence in turbulent times; and though the eldest son could not succeed to the throne, if he happened to be a minor at the death of his father, yet, as by the ancient laws the next of blood was to reign, the Scottish monarchy may be said to have been hereditary, subject however to peculiar regulations. MALONE. True, worthy Banquo; HE IS FULL SO VALIANT;] i. e. he is to the full as valiant as you have described him. We must imagine, that while Macbeth was uttering the six preceding lines, Duncan and Banquo had been conferring apart. Macbeth's conduct appears to have been their subject; and to some encomium supposed to have been bestowed on him by Banquo, the reply of Duncan refers. STEEVENS. 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 ; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves-air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have, great Glamis, 7 by the perfectest report,] By the best intelligence. 8 JOHNSON. MISSIVES from the king,] i. e. messengers. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Did gibe my missive out of audience." STEEVENS. |