And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If it be so,
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind;8
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings !
Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,

And champion me to the utterance : 9-Who's there?-
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.

Now to the door, and stay there till we call.
-Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
1 Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb. Well then, now

[Ex. At.

Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know,
That it was he, in the times past, which held you
So under fortune; which, you thought, had been
Our innocent self: this I made good to you
In our last conference; past in probation with you,

How you were borne in hand; how cross'd; the instru

ments;

Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might, To half a soul, and a notion craz'd,

Say, Thus did Banquo.

1 Mur. You made it known to us.

Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now

Our point of second meeting. Do you find
Your patience so predominant in your nature,

That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd,

(8) 'Filed, i. e. defiled. WARB.

This mark of contraction is not necessary. To file is in the Bishops' Bible.

JOHNSON. Que la destinee A challenge, or

(9) This passage will b best explained by translating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a l'outrance."

a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium inter ecinum, an intention to destroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is: Let fate, that has fore-doomed the exallation of the sons of Banquo, enter the lists against me with the utmost animosity in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger.

JOHNSON,

nana nani bow a you to των διανο,

And beggar'd yours for ever?

1 Mur. We are men, my liege.

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ;
As hounds, and grey-hounds, mongrels, spaniels, cur
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
All by the name of dogs: the valued file 3
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
The house-keeper, the hunter, every one
According to the gift which bounteous nature
Hath in him clos'd; whereby he does receive
Particular addition, from the bill

That writes them all alike: and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file,
And not in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off;
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.

2 Mur. I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incens'd, that I am reckless what
I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur. And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on't.

Macb. Both of you

Know, Banquo was your enemy.
Mur. True, my lord.

Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody distance.

That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my near'st of life: And though I could
With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it; yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Whom I myself struck down: and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love ;
Masking the business from the common eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur. We shall, my lord, Perform what you command us. 1 Mur. Though our lives

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this

hour, at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves.
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
The moment on't; for't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness : 5 And with him,
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work,)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
I'll come to you anon.

Mur. We are resolv'd, my lord.

Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.

It is concluded :-Banquo, thy soul's flight,

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

The same. Another Room. Enter Lady MACBETH and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure

Fora few words.

Serv. Madam, I will.

[Exit.

Lady M. Nought's had, all's spent,

Where our desire is got without content:

of the meta ting at the

nau, by ucation, wenn autus joy.
Enter MAСВЕТН.

-How now, my lord? why do you keep alone ?
Of sorriest fancies your companions making?
Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy
Should be without regard: what's done, is done.

Macb. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it;
She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let

The frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams,
That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstacy.7 Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further!

Lady M. Come on ;

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.

Macb. So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, & both with eye and tongue :
Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

Lady M. You must leave this.

Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know'st, that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne.9

[6] i. e. worthless, ignoble, vile.

STEEV.

[7] Ecstacy, in its general sense, signifies any violent emotion of the mine

Here it means the emotion of pain, agony. STEEV.
[8] i. e do him the highest honours. WARB.

[9] The copy, the lease, by which they hold their lives from nature, ha its time of termination limited. JOHNSON.

The allusion is to an estate for lives held by copy of court-roll. It is clean from numberless allusions of the same kind, that Shakspeare had been a attorney's clerk. RITSON.

35

't yet; they are assanadie;

Then be thou jocund: Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's summons,
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

• Lady M. What's to be done ?

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 3
Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,
Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond
Which keeps me pale!-Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood :4

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ;
Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by ill :
So, pr'ythee, go with me.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

The same. A Park or Lawn, with a Gate leading to the Palace. Enter three Murderers.

1 Mur. But who did bid thee join with us?

3 Mur. Macbeth.

2 Mur. He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers

Our offices, and what we have to do,

To the direction just.

1 Mur. Then stand with us.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day :
Now spurs the lated traveller apace,

To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
The subject of our watch.

3 Mur. Hark! I hear horses.

Banquo. [within.] Give us a light there, ho!

[1] The bats wheeling round the dim cloisters of Queen's College, Cambridge, have frequently impressed on me the singular propriety of this original epithet. STEEV.

[2] The shard-borne beetle is the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. To have an outward pair of wings of a scaly hardness, serving as integuments to a filmy pair beneath them, is the characteristic of the beetle kind. WARB.

[3] Seeling, i. e. blinding. It is a term in falconry. * WARB. [4] Rooky may mean damp, misty, steaming with exhalations. It is only a North country variation of dialect from reeky. Rooky wood, indeed, may signify a rookery, the wood that abounds with rooks. STEE V.