: SCENE III.S The fame. Enter a Porter. [Knocking within. PORTER. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock Who's there, i'the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty Come in time; have napkins enough' about you; here you'll fweat for't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's there, i'the other devil's name? 'Faith, here's an equivocator, that could fwear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treafon enough for God's fake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's 8 ment, derives force from the prefent change; a change which has been repeatedly made in fpelling this ancient fubftitute for the word of enforcement-ay, in the very play before us. STEEVENS. 3 Scene III.] Though Shakspeare (fee Sir J. Reynolds's excellent note on Act I. fc. vi. p. 381.) might have defigned this fcene as another inftance of what is called the repofe in painting, I cannot help regarding it in a different light. A glimpfe of comedy was expected by our author's audience in the most ferious drama; and where elfe could the merriment, which he himself was always ftruggling after, be fo happily introduced? STEEVENS. 6 he fhould have old turning the key.] i. e. frequent, more than enough. So, in K. Henry IV. P. II. the Drawer fays " Then here will be old utis." See note on this paffage. STEEVENS. 7 8 napkins enough-] i. e. handkerchiefs. So, in Othello: "Your napkin is too little." STEEVENS. here's an equivocator,-who committed treafon enough for God's fake,] Meaning a Jefuit:, an order f) troublefom: to the ftate in queen Elizabeth and king James the firft's time. The inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation. WARBURTON. there? 'Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hofe: Come in, tailor; here you may roaft your goofe. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in fome of all 9 here's an English tailor come hither, for fealing out of a French bofe:] The archnefs of the joke confifts in this, that a French hofe being very short and ftrait, a taylor must be master of his trade who could fteal any thing from thence. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton has faid this at random. The French hofe (according to Stubbs in his Anatomie of Abuses) were in the year 1595 much in fashion.- "The Gallic hofen are made very large and wide, reaching down to their knees only, with three or foure gardes apeece laid down along either hofe." Again, in The Ladies Privilege, 1640: 66 wear their long "Parifian breeches, with five points at knees, "Whofe tags, concurring with their harmonious fpurs, "So fhort i'th' waift, they feem as twere begot 66 Upon their doublets by their cloaks, which to fave stuff "Are but a year's growth longer than their skirts; "And all this magazine of device is furnish'd "By your French taylor." Again, in The Defence of Coneycatching, 1592: " Blest be the French fleeves and breech verdingales that grants them (the tailors) leave to coney-catch fo mightily." STEEVENS. When Mr. Steevens cenfured Dr. Warburton in this place, he forgot the uncertainty of French Fafbions. In The Treajury of ancient and modern Times, 1613, we have an account (from Guyon, I fuppofe) of the old French dreffes: " Mens hofe anfwered in length to their fhort-fkirted doublets; being made close to their limbes, wherein they had no meanes for pockets." And Withers, in his fatyr against vanity, ridicules "the fpruze, diminitive, neat, Frenchman's hofe." FARMER. From the following paffages in The Scornful Lady, by Beaumont and Fletcher, which appeared about the year 1613, it may be collected that large breeches were then in fashion: Saville. [an old steward.]" A comelier wear, I wis, than your dangling flaps." Afterwards Young Lovelefs fays to the fteward,"This is as plain as your old minikin breeches." MALONE. profeffions, that go the primrose way to the everlafting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate. Enter MACDUFF and LENOX. MACD. Was it fo late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie fo late? PORT. 'Faith, fir, we were caroufing 'till the fecond cock and drink, fir, is a great provoker of three things. MACD. What three things does drink especially provoke? PORT. Marry, fir, nose-painting, fleep, and urine. Lechery, fir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the defire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore, much drink may be faid to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it fets him on, and it takes him off; it perfuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to: in conclufion, equivocates him in a fleep,' and, giving him the lie, leaves him. 9 the primrofe way to the everlafting bonfire.] So, in Hamlet: "Himfelf the primrose path of dalliance treads." Again, in All's well that ends well: " the flowery way that leads &c. to the great fire." STEEVENS. 2 -till the fecond cock:] Cockcrowing. So, in King Lear: "he begins at curfew, and walks till the firft cock." Again, in the xiith Mery iefte of the Widow Edith, 1573: "The time they pas merely til ten of the clok, STEEVENS. It appears from a paffage in Romeo and Juliet, that Shakspeare means, that they were caroufing till three o'clock: The fecond cock has crow'd ; "The curfew-bell has toll'd: 'tis three o'clock." MALONE. 3 in a fleep,] Surely we should read—into a sleep, or-inte fleep. M. MASON. MACD. I believe, drink gave thee the lie laft night." The old reading is the true one. for into. So, in K. Richard III: 66 Our author frequently uses in But, firft, I'll turn yon' fellow in his grave." Again, ibid: 66 Falfely to draw me in these vile suspects." STEEVENS. 4 I believe, drink gave thee the lie laft night.] It is not very easy to ascertain precifely the time when Duncan is murdered. The converfation that paffes between Banquo and Macbeth in the first scene of this act might lead us to fuppofe that when Banquo retired to reft it was not much after twelve o'clock: "Ban. How goes the night, boy? "Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. "Fle. I take't 'tis later fir." The king was then " abed;" and immediately after Banquo retires Lady Macbeth ftrikes upon the bell, and Macbeth commits the murder. In a few minutes afterwards the knocking at the gate commences, (end of sc. ii.) and no time can be fuppofed to elapfe between the fecond and the third fcene, because the porter gets up in confequence of the knocking: yet here Macduff talks of lat night, and fays that he was commanded to call timely on the king, and that he fears he has almoft overpafs'd the hour; and the porter tells him "we were carousing till the fecond cock;" fo that we must fuppofe it to be now at leaft fix o'clock; for Macduff has already expreffed his furprize that the porter fhould lie fo late. From Lady Macbeth's words in the fifth act," One,-two-'tis time to do't," it should frem that the murder was committed at two o'clock, and that hour is certainly not inconfiftent with the converfation above quoted between Banquo and his fon; for we are not told how much later than twelve it was when Banquo retired to reft but even that hour of two will not correfpond with what the Porter and Macduff fay in the present scene. I fufpect our author (who is feldom very exact in his computation of time) in fact meant that the murder fhould be fuppofed to be committed a little before day-break, which exactly correfponds with the speech of Macduff now before us, though not fo well with the other circumftances already mentioned, or with Lady Macbeth's defiring her husband to put on his nightgown (that he might have the appearance of one newly roufed from bed,) left occafion fhould call them," and fhow them to be watchers;" which may fignify perfons who fit up late at night, but can hardly mean thofe who do not go to bed till day-break. Shakspeare, I believe, was led to fix the time of Duncan's murder near the break of day by Holinfhed's account of the murder of PORT. That it did, fir, i'the very throat o'me: But I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too ftrong for him, though he took up my legs fometime, yet I made a fhift to caft him.' MACD. Is thy master stirring? Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. Enter MACBETH. LEN. Good-morrow, noble fir! MACB. Good-morrow, both! MACD. Is the king ftirring, worthy thane? Масв. Not yet. MACD.He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost flipp'd the hour. MACB. I'll bring you to him. MACD. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one. MACB. The labour we delight in, phyficks pain. This is the door. king Duffe, already quoted:-" he was long in his oratorie, and there continued till it was late in the night.' Donwald's fervants "enter the chamber where the king laie, a little before cocks crow, where they fecretlie cut his throat." Donwald himself fat up with the officers of the guard the whole of the night. MALONE. s—I made a shift to cast him.] To caft him up, to ease my ftomach of him. The equivocation is between caft or throw, as a term of wrestling, and caft or caft up. JOHNSON. I find a fimilar play upon words, in an old comedy, entitled The Two angry Women of Abington, printed 1599: 66 to-night he's a good hufwife, he reels all that he wrought to day, and he were good now to play at dice, for he cafts excellent well." STEEVENS. 6 The labour we delight in, phyficks pain.] i. e. affords a cordial to it. So, in The Winter's Tale, fc. i: "It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, phyficks the fubject, makes old hearts freth." STEEVENS. |