The foot of motion, BAN. Look to the lady : [Lady MACBETH is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, 8 And question this most bloody piece of work, 8 And when we have our naked frailties hid, That fuffer in expofure,] i. e. when we have clothed our halfdreft bodies, which may take cold from being expofed to the air. It is poffible that in fuch a cloud of words, the meaning might escape the reader. STEEVENS. The porter in his fhort fpeech had obferved, that "this place [i. e. the court, in which Banquo and the reft now are,] is too cold for hell." Mr. Steevens's explanation is likewise supported by the following paffage in Timon of Athens: 66 Call the creatures, "Whose naked natures live in all the spight "Of wreakful heaven." MALONE. 9 In the great hand of God I ftand; and, thence, Again the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice.] Pretence is intention, defign, a fenfe in which the word is often used by Shakspeare. So, in The Winter's Tale: " confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fovereign lord the king, thy royal hufband, the pretence whereof being by circumftance partly laid open." Again, in this tragedy of Macbeth: "What good could they pretend?" i. e. intend to themfelves. Banquo's meaning is,-in our prefent ftate of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myfelf under the direction of God; and relying on his fupport, I here declare myfelf an eternal enemy to this trea fon, and to all its further defigns that have not yet come to light. STEEVENS. See Vol. III. p. 227, n. 6.—Hand, as Mr. Upton has observed, is here ufed for power, or providence. So, in Pfalm xxii: " Deliver my foul from the fword, my darling from the porvei [Heb. Масв. ALL. MACB. And fo do I So all. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i'the hall together. ALL. Well contented. [Exeunt all but MAL. and DON. MAL. What will you do? Let's not confort with them: To fhow an unfelt forrow, is an office Which the falfe man does eafy: I'll to England. DON. To Ireland, I; our feparated fortune Shall keep us both the fafer: where we are, There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, The nearer bloody." MAL. This murderous fhaft that's fhot, Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way from the hand] of the dog." In King Henry V. we have again the fame expreffion: 2 Let us deliver "Our puiffance into the hand of God." MALONE. the near in blood, The nearer bloody.] Meaning, that he fufpected Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the coufin-german of Duncan. STEEVENS. 3 This murderous fhaft that's fhot, Hath not yet lighted;] The defign to fix the murder upon some innocent perfon has not yet taken effect. JOHNSON. The Shaft is not yet lighted, and though it has done mischief in its fight, we have reafon to apprehend still more before it has spent its force and falls to the ground. The end for which the murder was committed, is not yet attained. The death of the king only, could neither infure the crown to Macbeth, nor accomplish any other purpose, while his fons were yet living, who had therefore just reafon to apprehend they fhould be removed by the fame means. Such another thought occurs in Buffy D'Ambois, 1607: Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horfe; SCENE IV. Without the Castle. Enter Rosse, and an old Man. OLD M. Threefcore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have feen Hours dreadful, and things ftrange; but this fore night Hath trifled former knowings. ROSSE. Ah, good father, Thou fee'ft, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody ftage: by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is it night's predominance, or the day's fhame, That darknefs does the face of earth intomb, When living light fhould kifs it? + 4 darkness does the face of earth intomb, When living light should kiss it?] After the murder of king Duffe, (fays Holinthed)" for the space of fix moneths togither there appeared no funne by day, nor moone by night, in anie part of the realme, but ftill was the fky covered with continual clouds; and fometimes fuch outrageous winds arofe with lightenings and tempefts, that the people were in great fear of present deftruction.” It is evident that Shakspeare had this paffage in his thoughts. OLD M. 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, Beauteous and fwift, the minions of their race," OLD M. 'Tis faid, they eat each other. ROSSE. They did fo; to the amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Mac duff: See note at the end of the play, with a reference to p. 396. STEEVENS. 3 in her pride of place,] Finely expreffed, for confidence in its quality. WARBURTON. In a place of which she seemed proud;—in an elevated fituation. 6 MALONE. by a moufing owl-] i. e. by an owl that was hunting for mice, as her proper prey. WHALLEY. This is alfo found among the prodigies confequent on king Duffe's murder: "There was a parhawk ftrangled by an owl." STEEVENS. 7 minions of their race,] Theobald reads: very probably, and very poetically. JOHNSON. Their is probably the true reading, the fame expreffion being found in Romeus and Juliet, 1562, a poem which Shakspeare had certainly read: "There were two ancient ftocks, which Fortune high did place "Above the reft, endew'd with wealth, the nobler of their race." MALONE, Enter MACDUFF. How goes the world, fir, now? MACD. Why, fee you not? ROSSE. Is't known, who did this more than bloody deed? Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two fons, Are ftol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Sufpicion of the deed. Rosse. 'Gainft nature ftill: Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up9 Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like," Moft of the prodigies juft before mentioned are related by Holinfhed, as accompanying king Duffe's death; and it is in particular afferted, that horfes of fingular beauty and fwiftness did eat their own flesh. STEEVENS. 8 What good could they pretend?] To pretend is here to propofe to themselves, to fet before themselves as a motive of action. JOHNSON. To pretend, in this inftance, as in many others, is fimply to intend, to defign. STEEVENS. So, in Goulart's Hiftories, 1607: "The carauell arriued fafe at her pretended port." p. 575. Again, p. 586: " As for the Sclauonian captaine, he caft himfelfe into the fea, meaning to swimme vnto the fhelfes neere vnto the fort, where hee pretended to faue himfelfe." RITSON. 9 - that wilt ravin up-] The old copy reads-will. Corrected by Sir Thomas Hanmer. MALONE. 2 Then 'tis moft like,] To complete the measure, I fuppofe, with Sir T. Hanmer, that our author wrote Why, then it is moft like,-. STEEVENS, |