To prick the fides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,

And falls on the other."-How now! what news?

LADY. M. He has almost fupp'd; Why have you left the chamber?

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

8

"Where are my tears?-rain, rain to lay this wind."

I have no fpur

To prick the fides of my intent, but only

MALONE.

Vaulting ambition,] The Spur of the occafion is a phrafe ufed by

ford Bacon. STEEVENS.

So, in The Tragedy of Cæfar and Pompey, 1607:

Why think you, lords, that 'tis ambition's fpur, "That pricketh Cæfar to thefe high attempts ?"

MALONE.

And falls on the other.] Sir T. Hanmer has on this occafion added a word, and would read-

And falls on the other fide.

Yet they who plead for the admiffion of this fupplement, fhould confider, that the plural of it, but two lines before, had occurred.

I, alfo, who once attempted to justify the omiffion of this word, ought to have understood that Shakspeare could never mean to defcribe the agitation of Macbeth's mind, by the affiftance of a halting verfe.

The general image, though confufedly expreffed, relates to a horfe, who, overleaping himfelf, falls, and his rider under him. To complete the line we may therefore read

"And falls upon the other."

Thus, in The Taming of a Shrew: "How he left her with the horfe upon her."

Macbeth, as I apprehend, is meant for the rider, his intent for his horfe, and his ambition for his pur; but, unluckily, as the words are arranged, the pur is faid to over-leap itfelf. Such hazardous things are long-drawn metaphors in the hands of careless writers. STEEVENS.

Enter Lady-] The arguments by which lady Macbeth perfuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of Shakspeare's

MACB. Hath he afk'd for me?

LADY. M.

Know you not, he has? MACB. We will proceed no further in this bufi

nefs :

He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all forts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest glofs, Not caft afide fo foon.

LADY M. Was the hope drunk,' Wherein you drefs'd yourself? hath it flept fince? And wakes it now, to look fo green and pale At what it did fo freely? From this time,

knowledge of human nature. She urges the excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated fometimes the house-breaker, and sometimes the conqueror; but this fophifm Macbeth has for ever destroyed, by diftinguishing true from falfe fortitude, in a line and a half; of which it may almost be faid, that they ought to beftow immortality on the author, though all his other productions had been loft: I dare do all that may become a man ;

Who dares do more, is none.

This topick, which has been always employed with too much fuccefs, is used in this fcene with peculiar propriety to a foldier by a woman. Courage is the diftinguishing virtue of a foldier; and the reproach of cowardice cannot be borne by any man from a woman, without great impatience.

She then urges the oaths by which he had bound himself to murder Duncan, another art of fophiftry by which men have fometimes deluded their confciences, and perfuaded themselves that what would be criminal in others is virtuous in them: this argument Shakspeare, whofe plan obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not confuted, though he might eafily have fhown that a former obligation could not be vacated by a latter; that obligations, laid on us by a higher power, could not be over-ruled by obligations which we lay upon ourfelves. JOHNSON.

Part of Lady Macbeth's argument is derived from the translation of Hector Boethius. See Dr. Farmer's note, p. 350. MALONE, 3 Was the hope drunk, &c.] The fame expreffion is found in K,

John:

"O, where hath our intelligence been drunk,
"Where hath it flept?" MALONE,

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the fame in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in defire? Would'ft thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own efteem; +
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage? ›

Масв.

Pr'ythee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more, is none.

LADY M.

What beast was it then,

That made you break this enterprize to me?
When you durft do it, then you were a man;

4Would't thou have that

Which thou efteem'ft the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own efteem;] In this there seems to be no reasoning. I should read:

Or live a coward in thine own efteem;

Unless we choose rather:

Would't thou leave that. JOHNSON.

Do you wish to obtain the crown, and yet would you remain fuch a coward in your own eyes all your life, as to fuffer your paltry fears, which whisper, "I dare not," to control your noble ambition, which

cries out,

"I would?" STEEVENS.

5 Like the poor cat i' the adage?] The adage alluded to is, The cat loves fifh, but dares not wet her feet:

"Čatus amat pifces, fed non vult tingere plantas." JOHNSON. 6 Pr'ythee, peace: &c.] A paffage fimilar to this occurs in Measure for Measure, A&t II. fc. ii:

be that you are,

"That is, a woman: if you're more, you're none." The old copy, inftead of do more, reads no more; but the prefent reading is undoubtedly right.

The correction (as Mr. Malone obferves) was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

The fame fentiment occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher's Rollo:

My Rollo, tho' he dares as much as man,

"Is tender of his yet untainted valour;

"So noble, that he dares do nothing bafely." HENLEY.

And, to be more than what you were, you would Be fo much more the man. Nor time, nor place, Did then adhere," and yet you would make both: They have made themfelves, and that their fitness

now

Does unmake you. I have given fuck; and know
How tender 'tis, to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was fmiling in my face,8
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dafh'd the brains out, had I fo fworn, as you
Have done to this.

MACB.
LADY M.

If we fhould fail,

We fail!*

Did then adhere,] Thus the old copy. Dr. Warburton would read-cohere, not improperly, but without neceffity. In The Merry Wives of Windfor, Mrs. Ford fays of Falstaff, that his words and actions" no more adhere and keep pace together, than" &c.

STEEVENS.

"Nor place conforted to my mind." MALONE.

I would, while it was fmiling in my face,] Polyxo, in the fifth book of Statius's Thebais, has a fimilar fentiment of ferocity: "In gremio (licet amplexu lachrymifque moretur) "Tranfadigam ferro." STEEVENS.

9

had I fo fworn,] The latter word is here ufed as a diffyllable. The editor of the fecond folio, from his ignorance of our author's phrafeology and metre, fuppofed the line defective, and reads-had I but fo fworn; which has been followed by all the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

My regulation of the metre renders it unneceffary to read worn as a diffyllable, a pronunciation, of which I believe there is no example. STEEVENS.

2 We fail!] I am by no means fure that this punctuation is the true one. If we fail, we fail,"-is a colloquial phrase still in frequent ufe. Macbeth having cafually employed the former part of this fentence, his wife defignedly completes it. We fail, and

But fcrew your courage to the sticking-place,'
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is afleep,

thereby know the extent of our misfortune. Yet our fuccefs is certain, if you are refolute.

Lady Macbeth is unwilling to afford her husband time to state any reafons for his doubt, or to expatiate on the obvious confequences of mifcarriage in his undertaking. Such an interval for reflection to act in, might have proved unfavourable to her purpofes. She therefore cuts him fhort with the remaining part of a common faying, to which his own words had offered an apt though accidental introduction.

This reply, at once cool and determined, is fufficiently characteriftick of the fpeaker :-according to the old punctuation, fhe is reprefented as rejecting with contempt (of which she had already manifefted enough) the very idea of failure. According to the mode of pointing now fuggefted, fhe admits a poffibility of mifcarriage, but at the fame inftant fhows herself not afraid of its refult. Her anfwer therefore communicates no difcouragement to her husband. We fail! is the hafty interruption of fcornful impatience. We fail.-is the calm deduction of a mind which, having weighed all circumftances, is prepared, without lofs of confidence in itself, for the worst that can happen. So Hotfpur:

"If we fall in, good night :- -or fink, or fwim."

STEEVENS.

3 But fcrew your courage to the sticking-place,] This is a metaphor from an engine formed by mechanical complication. The flickingplace is the ftop which fufpends its powers, till they are discharged on their proper object; as in driving piles, &c. So, in Sir W. Davenant's Cruel Brother, 1630:

66

There is an engine made,

"Which spends its ftrength by force of nimble wheels ; "For they, once screwed up, in their return

"Will rive an oak."

Again, in Coriolanus, A&t I. fc. viii:

"Wrench up thy power to the higheft."

Perhaps indeed Shakspeare had a more familiar image in view, and took his metaphor from the fcrewing up the chords of ftringinftruments to their proper degree of tenfion, when the peg remains faft in its ficking-place, i. e. in the place from which it is not to move. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens's laft interpretation is, in my apprehenfion, the true one. Sir W. D'Avenant mifunderstood this paffage. By the flicking