Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains Will I with wine and waffel so convince, place, he feems to have thought the poet meant the stabbing place, the place where Duncan was to be wounded; for he reads, "Bring but your courage to the fatal place, "And we'll not fail." MALONE. his two chamberlains Will I with wine and waffel fo convince, &c,] The circumstance relative to Macbeth's flaughter of Duncan's Chamberlains, (as I obferved fo long ago, as in our edition 1773,) is copied from Holinfhed's account of King Duffe's murder by Donwald. Mr. Malone has fince transcribed the whole narrative of this event from the Chronicle; but being too long to ftand here as a note, it is given, with other bulky extracts, at the conclufion of the play. STEEVENS. To convince is, in Shakspeare, to overpower or fubdue, as in this play: 66 Their malady convinces "The great affay of art." JOHNSON. So, in the old tragedy of Cambyfes: "If that your heart addicted be the Egyptians to convince.” Again: "By this his grace, by conqueft great the Egyptians did convince." Again, in Holinfhed:" thus mortally fought, intending to vanquish and convince the other.” STEEVENS. and waffel-] What was anciently called was-baile (as appears from Selden's notes on the ninth fong of Drayton's Polyolbion) was an annual cuftom obferved in the country on the vigil of the new year; and had its beginning, as fome fay, from the words which Ronix daughter of Hengift ufed, when the drank to Vortigern, loverd king was-heil; he anfwering her, by direction of an interpreter, drinc-heile; and then, as Geoffry of Monmouth fays, Kufte hire and fitte hire adoune and glad dronke hire beil; "And that was tho in this land the verft was-hail, voryute." That memory, the warder of the brain,' Afterwards it appears that was-haile, and drinc-heil, were the ufual phrafes of quaffing among the English, as we may fee from Thomas de la Moore in the Life of Edward II. and in the lines of Hanvil the monk, who preceded him : "Ecce vagante cifo diftento gutture wass-heil, But Selden rather conjectures it to have been a ufual ceremony among the Saxons before Hengift, as a note of health-wishing, fuppofing the expreffion to be corrupted from wifh-heil. Waffel or Waffail is a word ftill in ufe in the midland counties, and fignifies at prefent what is called Lambs-Wool, i. e. roasted apples in ftrong beer, with fugar and fpice. See Beggars Bush, Act IV. fc. iv: "What think you of a waffel? 66 thou, and Ferret, "And Ginks, to fing the fong; I for the structure, "Which is the bowl." Ben Jonfon perfonifies waffel thus: -Enter Waffel like a neat Jempfter and fongfter, her page bearing a brown bowl dreft with ribbands and rofemary, before her. Waffel is, however, fometimes ufed for general riot, intemperance, or feftivity. On the present occafion I believe it means intemperance. STEEVENS. MALONE. the warder of the brain,] A warder is a guard, a fentinel. So, in King Henry VI. P. I: 6 "Where be these warders, that they wait not here?" STEEVENS. the receipt of reafon] i. e. the receptacle. MALONE. A limbeck only:] That is, fhall be only a vessel to emit fumes or vapours. JOHNSON. The limbeck is the veffel, through which diftilled liquors pafs into the recipient. So fhall it be with memory; through which every thing shall pafs, and nothing remain. A. C. 8 Their drenched natures-] i. e. as we should say at present,→ Joaked, faturated with liquor. STEEVENS. What cannot you and I perform upon MACB. Bring forth men-children only! For thy undaunted mettle fhould compofe Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd, When we have mark'd with blood thofe fleepy two Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers, That they have don't? LADY M. Who dares receive it other," As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar Масв. I am fettled, and bend up' who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?] Quell is murder, manquellers being in the old language the term for which murderers is now used. JOHNSON. So, in Chaucer's Tale of the Nonnes Prieft, v. 15396, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit: the "The dokes cryeden as men wold hem quelle." The word is ufed in this fenfe by Holinfhed, p. 567 :-" poor people ran about the streets, calling the capteins and governors murtherers and manquellers." STEEVENS. 9 Who dares receive it other,] So, in Holinfhed: " -he burthen'd the chamberleins, whom he had flaine, with all the fault, they having the keyes of the gates committed to their keeping all the night, and therefore it could not be otherwife (faid he) but that they were of counsfel in the committing of that most detestable murther." MALONE. and bend up-] A metaphor from the bow. So, in K. "To his full height." The fame phrafe occurs in Melvil's Memoirs: “ but that ra ther the fhould bend up her spirit by a princely &c. behaviour." Edit. 1735, p. 148. Till this infant, the mind of Macbeth has been in a flate of uncertainty and fluctuation. He has hitherto proved neither refo Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with faireft fhow: Falfe face muft hide what the falfe heart doth know. [Exeunt, lutely good, nor obftinately wicked. Though a bloody idea had arifen in his mind, after he had heard the prophecy in his favour, yet he contentedly leaves the completion of his hopes to chance. At the conclufion, however, of his interview with Duncan, he inclines to haften the decree of fate, and quits the ftage with an apparent refolution to murder his fovereign. But no fooner is the king under his roof, than, reflecting on the peculiarities of his own relative fituation, he determines not to offend against the laws of hofpitality, or the ties of fubjection, kindred, and gratitude. His wife then affails his conftancy afresh. He yields to her fuggeftions, and, with his integrity, his happiness is destroyed. I have enumerated thefe particulars, because the waverings of Macbeth have, by fome criticks, been regarded as unnatural and contradictory circumftances in his character; not remembering that nemo repente fuit turpiffimus, or that (as Angelo obferves) 66 when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not—:" a paffage which contains no unapt juftification of the changes that happen in the conduct of Macbeth. STEEVENS, ACT II. SCENE I The fame. Court within the Caftle. Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE; and a Servant, with a torch before them. BAN. How goes the night, boy? FLE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. BAN. And fhe goes down at twelve. FLE. I take't, 'tis later, fir. BAN. Hold, take my fword :-There's husban- Their candles are all out."-Take thee that too. 3 Scene I.] The place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it easy to say where this encounter can be. It is not in the ball, as the editors have all fuppofed it, for Banquo fees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the converfation fhows: it must be in the inner court of the caftle, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON. 4-There's husbandry in heaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet: "And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." MALONE. 5 Their candles are all out.] The fame expreffion occurs in Romea and Juliet: Night's candles are burnt out." Again, in our author's 21ft fonnet: "As thofe gold candles fix'd in heaven's air." See Vol. V. p. 539, n. 6. MALONE. 6 Merciful powers! Refrain in me the curfed thoughts, that nature Gives way to in repofe !] It is apparent from what Banquo fays |