Hold fast the mortal sword: and like good men,
Bestride our downfal birth-doom: each new morn,
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds

As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out
Like syllables of dolour.

He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts him to bestride his downfal birthdoom, is at liberty to adhere to the present text; but those who are willing to confess that such counsel would to them be unintelligible must endeavour to discover some reading less obscure. It is probable that Shakespeare wrote,

Like good men,

Bestride our downfaln birthdom

The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be taken by violence, and who that he may defend it without encumbrance, lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground, let us, like men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate resolution.

Birthdom for birthright is formed by the same analogy with masterdom in this play, signifying the privileges or rights of a master.

Perhaps it might be birth-dame for mother; let us stand over our mother that lies bleeding on the ground.

Malcolm.

NOTE XL.

Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness

Be like our warranted quarrel.

The chance of goodness, as it is commonly read, conveys no sense. If there be not some more important errour in the passage, it should at least be pointed thus:

-And the chance, of goodness,

Be like our warranted quarrel,

That is, May the event be, of the goodness of heaven [pro justicia divina], answerable to the cause. But I am inclined to believe that Shakespeare wrote,

And the chance, O goodness,

Be like our warranted quarrel.

This some of his transcribers wrote with a small o, which another imagined to mean of. If we adopt this reading, the sense will be, and O thou sovereign goodness to whom we now appeal, may our fortune

answer to our cause.

NOTE XLI.

ACT V. SCENE III.

Macbeth. BRING me no more reports, let them fly all, "Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman ?

-Fly false Thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures.

In the first line of this speech, the proper pauses are not observed in the present editions.

Bring me no more reports-let them fly all

Tell me not any more of desertions-Let all my subjects leave me-I am safe till, &c.

The reproach ef epicurism, on which Mr. Theobald has bestowed a note, is nothing more than a natural invective uttered by an inhabitant of a barren country, against those who have more opportunities of luxury.

NOTE XLII.

Macbeth. I HAVE liv'd long enough: my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf.

As there is no relation between the way of life, and fallen into the sear, I am inclined to think, that the Wis only an M inverted, and that it was originally written, My May of life.

I am now passed from the spring to the autumn of my days, but I am without those comforts that should succeed the sprightliness of bloom, and support me in this melancholy season.

NOTE XLIII,

SCENE IV.

Malcolm. Trs his main hope:

For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more or less have given him the revolt;

And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are absent too.

The impropriety of the expression advantage to be given, instead of advantage given, and the disagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read,

Where there is a vantage to be gone,

Both more and less have given him the revolt.

Advantage or vantage in the time of Shakespeare signified opportunity.

More and less is the same with greater and less. So in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India the more and the less.

NOTE XLIV.

Macbeth.

SCENE V.

WHEREFORE was that cry?

Seyton. The queen is dead.

Macbeth. She should (1) have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of (2) recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow.-

She should have died hereafter,

There would have been a time for such a word.

This

passage has very justly been suspected of being corrupt. It is not apparent for what word there would have been a time; and that there would or would not be a time for any word, seems not a consideration of importance sufficient to transport

Macbeth into the following exclamation. I read therefore,

(1) She should have died hereafter,

There would have been a time for such a world!--
To-morrow, &c.

It is a broken speech, in which only part of the thought is expressed, and may be paraphrased thus: The queen is dead. Macbeth. Her death should have been deferred to some more peaceful hour; had she lived longer, there would at length have been a time for the honours due to her as a queen, and that respect which I owe her for her fidelity and love Such is the world—such is the condition of human life, that we always think to-morrow will be happier than to-day; but to-morrow and to-morrow steals over us unenjoyed and unregarded, and we still linger in the same expectation to the moment appointed for our end. All these days, which have thus passed away, have sent multitudes of fools to the grave who were engrossed by the same dream of future felicity, and, when life was dcparting from them, were like me reckoning on to-morrow.

(2) To the last syllable of recorded time.

Recorded time seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. The records of futurity is indeed no accurate expression, but as we only know transactions past or present, the language of men affords no term for the volumes of prescience, in which future events may be supposed to be written.