his ignorance still continues; and, when Rosse and Angus present him from the king with his new title, he cries out

Why do

you

-The Thane of Cawdor lives.

dress me in his borrowed robes ?

Rosse and Angus, who were the messengers that in the second scene informed the king of the assistance given by Cawdor to the invader, having lost, as well as Macbeth, all memory of what they had so lately seen and related, make this answer,

Whether he was

Combin'd with Norway, or did line the rebels
With hidden help and vantage, or with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not.

Neither Rosse knew what he had just reported, nor
Macbeth what he had just done. This seems not to
be one of the faults that are to be imputed to the
transcribers, since, though the inconsistency of Rosse
and Angus might be removed, by supposing that
their names are erroneously inserted, and that only
Rosse brought the account of the battle, and only
Angus was sent to compliment Macbeth, yet the
forgetfulness of Macbeth cannot be palliated, since
what he says could not have been spoken by any
other.

NOTE VII.

THE thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man,

The

The single state of man seems to be used by Shakespeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body of men.

Macbeth.

NOTE VIII.

COME what come may,

Time and the hour runs thro' the roughest day.

I suppose every reader is disgusted at the tautology in this passage, time and the hour, and will therefore willingly believe that Shakespeare wrote it thus,

Come what come may, Time! on!-the hour runs thro' the roughest day.

Macbeth is deliberating upon the events which are to befal him; but finding no satisfaction from · his own thoughts, he grows impatient of reflection, and resolves to wait, the close without harassing himself with conjectures,

Come what come may.

But to shorten the pain of suspense, he calls upon time in the usual style of ardent desire, to quicken his motion,

Time! on!

He then comforts himself with the reflection that all his perplexity must have an end,

This conjecture is supported by the passage in the letter to his lady, in which he says, They referr'd me to the coming on of time with Hail King that shall be.

Malcolm.

NOTE IX.

SCENE VI.

NOTHING in his life

Became him like the leaving it. He died,
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

As the word ow'd affords here no sense but such as is forced and unnatural, it cannot be doubted that it was originally written, The dearest thing he oron'd ; a reading which needs neither defence nor explication.

NOTE X.

King. THERE's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face.

The construction of the mind is, I believe, a phrase peculiar to Shakespeare; it implies the frame or disposition of the mind, by which it is determined to good or ill.

NOTE XI.

Macbeth. THE service, and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties

Are to your throne and state, children and servants,
Which do but what they should, in doing every thing
Safe tow'rds your love and honour.

Of the last line of this speech, which is certainly, as it is now read, unintelligible, an emendation has been attempted, which Mr. Warburton and Mr. Theobald have admitted as the true reading.

Our duties

Are to your throne and state, children and servants, Which do but what they should, in doing every thing, Fiefs to your love and honour.

My esteem of these criticks, inclines me to believe, that they cannot be much pleased with the expressions Fiefs to love, or Fiefs to honour; and that they have proposed this alteration rather because no other occurred to them, than because they approved it. I shall therefore propose a bolder change, perhaps with no better success, but sua cuique placent. I read thus,

Our duties

Are to your throne and state, children and servants,

Which do but what they should, in doing nothing Save tow'rds your love and honour.

We do but perform our duty when we contract all our views to your service, when we act with no other principal than regard to your love and honour.

It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing safe for save, and the lines then stood thus,

Doing nothing

Safe tow'rd your love and honour.

Which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not being able to discover the real fault, altered to the present reading.

NOTE XII

SCENE VII.

THOU'DST have, great Glamis,

That which cries, "thus thou must do if thou have it, "And that," &c.

As the object of Macbeth's desire is here introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read,

-Thou'dst have, great Glamis,

That which cries, "thus thou must do if thou

have me."