The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 7 of 9]

'Thou'dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries, Thus than must do, if thou have me,
And that's what rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone.'

Mr. Joseph Hunter (New Illustrations &c. of Shakespeare, II. p. 172) proposed to mark the words 'Thus thou must do' only as a quotation, and to read line 22 thus:

'That which cries "Thus thou must do" if thou wouldst have it.'

Note II.

II. 1. 13, 14. The first Folio reads here:

'He hath beene in vnusuall Pleasure,
And sent forth great Largesse to your Offices.'

The second, followed substantially by the third and fourth:

'He hath beene in unusuall pleasure.
And sent forth a great Largesse to your Offices.'

Rowe altered 'Offices' to 'Officers.'

Pope reads:

'He hath to-night been in unusual pleasure,
And sent great largess to your officers.'

'To-night' was first introduced in Davenant's Version.

This reading was adopted by subsequent editors down to Capell, inclusive. Steevens (1773) has:

'He hath been in unusual pleasure;
Sent forth great largess to your officers.'

Jennens first adopted the arrangement given in our text, though he retained Rowe's emendation 'officers.'

Note III.

II. 1. 24. After this line Jennens proposes to add the following to Banquo's speech:

'Those lookers into fate, that hail'd you, Cawdor!
Did also hail you, king! and I do trust,
Most worthy Thane, you would consent to accept
What your deserts would grace, when offer'd you.'

Note IV.

II. 2. 35, 36. In the Folios and the earlier editors it is not clear from the mode of printing where the words of the 'voice' ended. Hanmer printed the whole in italics down to 'life's feast' in line 40, omitting however line 37 with Pope. Johnson was the first to print only the words 'Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murther sleep' as the cry of the voice, supposing the remainder to be Macbeth's comment. In lines 42, 43, where the printing of the earlier editions is equally indecisive, Hanmer prints from 'Glamis' to 'Macbeth shall sleep no more' in italics, while Johnson prints only 'Glamis hath murder'd sleep' as the cry of the voice.

Note V.

III. 1. 120-122. Dr. A. Hunter (Harry Rowe) arranges these lines as follows:

'But wail his fall whom I myself struck down:
For certain friends there are, both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop: and thence it is, &c.'

Note VI.

III. 2. 29-35. In these lines we have followed the arrangement of Steevens (1793), which with the exception of the fourth and fifth lines is the same as that of the Folios. The Folios divide the fourth and fifth lines thus:

'Vnsafe the while, that wee must laue
Our Honors in these flattering streames.'

Rowe read them:

'Unsafe the while, that we must lave our Honours
In these so flattering streams,
And make &c.'

Pope:

'Unsafe the while, that we must lave our honours
In these so flatt'ring streams, and make our faces
Vizards t'our hearts, disguising what they are.

Capell rearranged the whole passage thus:

'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.'

Steevens suggested that something was omitted, and proposed to read 'Unsafe the while it is for us, that we,' &c.

Note VII.

III. 4. 124. 'Augure,' as was pointed out by Mr. Singer, was used for 'augury.' In Florio's World of Wordes(1598), we find 'Augurio, an augure, a soothsaying, a prediction, a signe, a coniecture, a divination, a bad or ill hap, a wishing of good hap, a forboding.'

Note VIII.

IV. 1. 43. Rowe, from Davenant's version, prints the song thus:

'Black Spirits and White,
Blue Spirits and Gray,
Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may.'

In the second line Malone printed 'Red spirits,' &c., following Middleton's play of The Witch, Act V. Sc. 2.

Note IX.

V. 1. 32. Hell is murky. Steevens printed these words with a note of exclamation after them, with the following note. 'She certainly imagines herself here talking to Macbeth, who, (she supposes,) has just said, Hell is murky, (i.e. hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed,) and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice.'

CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Transcriber's Notes:

Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were silently corrected.

Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.

Line wrapping retained in plays to retain prose numbering.

Linenotes converted to footnotes with anchors at line ends.

Incorrect line numbers retained, e.g. there are often more than 5 lines (or occasionally less than 5) between increments of 5.

Anchors assigned to linenotes without line references.

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.