And take my milk for gall, you murth'ring minifters, You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night! That my keen knife fee not the wound it makes; Enter Macbeth. Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! [Embracing him. Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! Thy letters have tranfported me beyond Mac. My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night. Lady. And when goes hence? Shall fun that morrow fee. Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men May read ftrange matters. To beguile the time, This night's great bufinefs into my difpatch, P This direction first given by R. time. Ny. P. and all after, except G. omit • The period is placed at the end of this line, in the fo's, R. and P. Which fhall to all our nights and days to come Give folely fovereign fway and mafterdom. Mac. We will fpeak further. Lady. Only look up clear: To alter favour ever is to fear: Leave all the reft to me. [Exeunt. Hautboys and Torches. Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Roffe, Angus, and Auten dants. King. This caftle hath a pleasant seat; the air Ban. This gueft of fummer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve Buttrice, nor coigne of 'vantage, but this bird Where they must breed and haunt, I have obferv'd, The air is delicate. Euter Lady Macbeth. King. Seç, fee! our honour'd hostess! b The love that follows us, fometimes is our trouble, you And thank us for your trouble. Lady. All our fervice, In every point twice done, and then done double, Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith We reft your hermits. King. Where's the Thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose And his great love, fharp as his fpur, hath holp him We are your guest to-night. Lady. Your fervants ever Have theirs, themfelves, and what is theirs in compt, Still to return your own. King, Give me your hand, So the fo's; the reft, most for muft. b. The fo's, R. and C. sometime is our, 16. P. Sometime's our, &c, So the fo's, R.'s octavo, H. and C; the rest, should for shall, d The sft f. Ermites. Conduct 3 Conduct me to mine hoft, we love him highly; [Exeunt. SCENE IX. * An Apartment in Macbeth's Cafile. Hautboys, Torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth. Mac. If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly; if th' affaffination Could trammel up the conféquence, and catch, e In the fo's, R, and C. Scene VII. f No defcription of the scene in the fo'". would fecure me the confequence I aim at, viz. the quiet poffeffion of his crown, and procure me with his furceafe, or z None but the fo's and C. mention death, fuccefs to my ambitious defigns; • Sewer. h So all before P; he and all after, except C. read its for bis; whereby the passage is obfcured, and J. has been led to propose an emendation, viz. With its fuccefs, furcease, &c. i. e, with fuccefs in the affaffination, a furcease of farther fear and anxiety. This I fuppofe is 7.'s meaning. But had the modern editors retained the old reading bis, they would have met with no difficulty herein: for bis refers to Duncan; and the meaning is this, If the affaffination of Duncan that but this one blow might be all I had to do, and that nothing was to be feared here, in this life, afterwards; we'd jump the life to come; I would skip over those thoughts that regard a ftate beyond the grave, I would venture the future judgment. But in these cafes of murther, we still have judgment bere. And this is agreeable to the common opinion, that murder will out, fome time or other, and receive its punishment in this world. Might be the Be-all and the End-all here, m fchool of time, And Pity, like a naked, new-born babe, Upon the fightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears fhall drown the wind. I have no fpur |