Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch. Who's there? MACB. A friend. BẠN. What, fir, not yet at reft? The king's abed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largess to your offices: 8 afterwards, that he had been folicited in a dream to attempt fomething in confequence of the prophecy of the witches, that his waking fenfes were shock'd at; and Shakspeare has here most exquifitely contrafted his character with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his fleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may affift him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to fleep, left the fame phantoms fhould affail his refolution again, while the other is depriving himself of reft through impatience to commit the murder. The fame kind of invocation occurs in Cymbeline: "From fairies, and the tempters of the night, "Guard me!" STEEVENS. Sent forth great largess to your offices:] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Offices are the rooms appropriated to fervants and culinary purposes. Thus in Timon: "When all our offices have been opprefs'd By riotous feeders." Again, in King Richard II: Unpeopled offices, untrodden ftones." Duncan was pleafed with his entertainment, and difpenfed his bounty to those who had prepared it. All the modern editors have transferred this largefs to the officers of Macbeth, who would more properly have been rewarded in the field, or at their return to court. STEEVENS. By the name of most kind hostess; and shut MACB. Being unprepar'd, Our will became the fervant to defect; All's well.* BAN. Масв. I think not of them: Yet, when we can entreat an hour to ferve, BAN. At your kind'ft leifure. 8 but up-] To shut up, is to conclude. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "And heavens have but up day to pleasure us." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. IV. c. ix: "And for to shut up all in friendly love." Again, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, fourth edit. p. 137: 66 though the parents have already but up the contract." Again, in Stowe's account of the earl of Effex's fpeech on the scaffold: "he hut up all with the Lord's prayer." STEEVENS. Again, in Stowe's Annals, p. 833: "—the kings majestie [K. James] but up all with a pithy exhortation on both fides." 9 Being unprepar'd, Our will became the fervant to defect; MALONE. Which elfe fhould free have wrought.] This is obfcurely expreffed. The meaning feems to be :-Being unprepared, our entertainment was neceffarily defective, and we only had it in our power to fhow the king our willingness to ferve him. Had we received fufficient notice of his coming, our zeal fhould have been more clearly manifefted by our acts. Which refers, not to the laft antecedent, defect, but to will. MALONE. 2 All's well.] I fuppofe the poet originally wrote (that the preceding verse might be completed)" Sir, all is well." STEEVENS, MACB. If you fhall cleave to my confent,-when 'tis,' 3 If you shall cleave to my confent,-when 'tis,] Confent for will. So that the fenfe of the line is, If you fhall go into my measures when I have determined of them, or when the time comes that I want your affistance. WARBURTON. Macbeth expreffes his thought with affected obfcurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently had it in his mind. If you shall cleave to my confent, if you fhall concur with me when I determine to accept the crown, when 'tis, when that happens which the prediction promises, it shall make honour for Jou. JOHNSON. Such another expreffion occurs in lord Surrey's tranflation of the fecond book of Virgil's Eneid: "And if thy will stick unto mine, I shall "In wedlocke fure knit, and make her his own." Confent has fometimes the power of the Latin concentus. Both the verb and fubftantive, decidedly bearing this fignification, occur in other plays of our author. Thus in K. Henry VI. P. I. fc. i: fcourge the bad revolting stars "That have confented to king Henry's death ;" i. e. acted in concert fo as to occafion it.-Again, in K. Henry IV. P. II. A& V. sc. i: "they (Juftice Shallow's fervants) flock together in confent, (i. e. in a party,) like fo many wild geefe."In both these inftances the words are fpelt erroneously, and should be written concent and concented. See Spenfer, &c. as quoted in a note on the paffage already adduced from K. Henry VI. The meaning of Macbeth is then as follows:-If you shall cleave to my confenti. e. if you shall stick, or adhere, to my party-when 'tis, i. e. at the time when fuch a party is formed, your conduct fhall produce honour for you. That confent means participation, may be proved from a paffage in the 50th Pfalm. I cite the tranflation 1568. "When thou fawedst a thiefe, thou dydft confent unto hym, and haft been partaker with the adulterers." In both inftances the particeps criminis is spoken of. Again, in our author's As you like it, the ufurping Duke says, after the flight of Rofalind and Celia,— fome villains of my court "Are of confent and fufferance in this." Again, in K. Henry V : "We carry not a heart with us from hence, It shall make honour for you. BAN. So I lofe none, Macbeth mentally refers to the crown he expected to obtain in confequence of the murder he was about to commit. The commentator, indeed, (who is acquainted with what precedes and follows) comprehends all that paffes in the mind of the speaker; but Banquo is ftill in ignorance of it. His reply is only that of a man who determines to combat every poffible temptation to do ill; and therefore expreffes a refolve that in fpite of future combinations of intereft, or ftruggles for power, he will attempt nothing that may obfcure his prefent honours, alarm his confcience, or corrupt his loyalty. Macbeth could never mean, while yet the fuccefs of his attack on the life of Duncan was uncertain, to afford Banquo the most dark or diftant hint of his criminal defigns on the crown. Had he acted thus incautiously, Banquo would naturally have become his accufer, as foon as the murder had been discovered. STEEVENS. That Banquo was apprehenfive of a defign upon the crown, is evident from his reply, which affords Macbeth fo little encouragement, that he drops the fubject. RITSON. The word confent has always appeared to me unintelligible in the first of thefe lines, and was, I am perfuaded, a mere errour of the prefs. A paffage in The Tempeft leads me to think that our author wrote-content. Antonio is counselling Sebastian to murder Gonzalo : " O, that you bore "The mind that I do; what, a fleep were there "Ant. And how does your content "Tender your own good fortune ?” In the fame play we have Thy thoughts I cleave to," which differs but little from " I cleave to thy content.' In The Comedy of Errors our author has again ufed this word in the fame fenfe: "Sir, I commend you to your own content,” Again, in All's well that ends well: "Madam, the care I have taken to even your content," i. e. fays Dr. Johnson, to act up to your defires. Again, in King Richard III: "God hold it to your honour's good content!" Again, in The Merry Wives of Windjor: "You fhall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your own content." In feeking to augment it, but still keep Масв. Good repose, the while! BAN. Thanks, fir; The like to you! [Exit BANQUO. The meaning then of the prefent difficult paffage, thus corrected, will be,-If you will closely adhere to my caufe, if you will promote, as far as you can, what is likely to contribute to my fatisfaction and content,-when 'tis, when the prophecy of the weird fifters is fulfilled, when I am feated on the throne, the event fhall make honour for you. The word content admits of this interpretation, and is fupported by feveral other paffages in our author's plays; the word confent, in my apprehenfion, affords here no meaning whatsoever. Confent or concent may certainly fignify harmony, and in a metaphorical fenfe that union which binds to each other a party or number of men, leagued together for a particular purpose; but it can no more fignify, as I conceive, the party, or body of men fo combined together, or the cause for which they are united, than the harmony produced by a number of mufical inftruments can fignify the inftruments themfelves or the musicians that play upon them. When Fairfax, in his tranflation of Taffo, fays "Birds, winds and waters fing with sweet concent,” we must furely understand by the word concent, not a party, or a cause, but harmony, or union; and in the latter sense, I apprehend, Justice Shallow's fervants are faid to flock together in concent, in the fecond part of K. Henry IV. If this correction be juft, "In feeking to augment it," in Banquo's reply, may perhaps relate not to his own honour, but to Macbeth's content. "On condition that I lose no honour, in seeking to increase your fatisfaction, or content,-to gratify your wishes,' &c. The words however may be equally commodioufly interpreted," Provided that in seeking an increase of honour, I lose none," &c. Sir William D'Avenant's paraphrafe on this obfcure passage is as follows: "If when the prophecy begins to look like, you will MALONE, |