As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, And in King Richard II," the fall of leaf "is used as in the passage before us, simply and absolutely for bodily decay: "He who hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring, "Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf." When a passage can be thus easily explained, and the mode of expression is so much in our poet's general manner, surely any attempt at emendation is not only unnecessary, but dangerous. However, as a reading which was originally proposed by Dr. Johnson, and has been adopted in the modern editions, - my May of life," has many favourers, I shall add a word or two on that subject. 66 By his "May of life having fallen into the yellow leaf," that is, into autumn, we must understand that Macbeth means either, that being in reality young, he is, in consequence of his cares, arrived at a premature old age;-or that he means simply to assert, that in the progress of life he has passed from May or youth to autumn or old age; in other words, that he is now an old man, or at least near being one. If the first interpretation be maintained, it is sufficient to say, (I use the words of my friend Mr. Flood, whose ingenious comment on this passage I published some years ago) that "Macbeth, when he speaks this speech, is not youthful. He is contemporary to Banquo, who is advanced in years, and who hath a son upon the scene able to escape the pursuit of assassins and the vigilance of Macbeth." I may likewise add that Macbeth, having now sat for seventeen years on the throne of Scotland, cannot with any probability be supposed to be like our author's Henry V, "in the May morn of his youth." We must therefore understand these words in the latter sense; namely, that he means only, that in the ordinary progress he has passed from the spring to the autumn of life, from youth to the confines of age. What then is obtained by this alteration? for this is precisely the meaning of the words as they stand in the old copy. There is still another very strong objection to the proposed emendation. It is alleged that in this very play may is printed instead of way, and why may not the contrary error have happened here? For this plain reason; because May (the month) both in manuscript and print always is exhibited with a capital letter, and it is exceedingly improbable that a compositor at the press should use a small w instead of a capital M. But, without going further into this subject, it is sufficient for our purpose, that the text, as it is exhibited in the ancient copy, affords an obvious, easy sense, without any emendation whatsoever. Malone. 5 -the sear,] Sear is dry. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, 1639: 66 -sear winter "Hath seal'd the sap up." I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Enter SEYTON. Sey. What is your gracious pleasure? What news more? Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. Give me my armour. Sey. Macb. I'll put it on. 'Tis not needed yet. Send out more horses, skirr the country round ;6 Hang those that talk of fear.7-Give me mine ar mour. How does your patient, doctor? Doct. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, And Milton has -"Ivy never sear.” Shakspeare has the same thought in his 73d Sonnet: "That time of year thou may'st in me behold, "When yellow leaves," &c. Steevens. Again, in our author's Lover's Complaint, where the epithet is so used, as clearly to ascertain the meaning of " the sear, the yellow leaf," in the passage before us: 66 spite of heaven's fell rage, "Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age." Malone. skirr the country round,] To skirr, I believe, signifies to scour, to ride hastily. The word is used by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Martial Maid: "Whilst I, with this and this, well mounted, skirr'd Again, in King Henry V: "And make them skirr away, as swift as stones Again in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca: 66 the light shadows, "That, in a thought, scur o'er the fields of corn, talk of fear.] The second folio reads stand in fear. 8 That keep her -] The latter word, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was added by the editor of the second folio. Malone. Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; • And with some sweet oblivious antidote,] Perhaps, as Dr. Farmer has observed, our poet here remembered Spenser's de scription of Nepenthe: "Nepenthe is a drinek of sovereign grace, "Harts grief, and bitter gall away to chace,- Fairy Queen, B. IV, c. iii, st. 34. Malone. "Securos latices, et longa oblivia potant." Thus translated by Phaer, 1558: "These liquors quenching cares, and long forgetful draughts thei drink "That of their liues, and former labours past, they neuer thinck." Thus also Statius, Theb. I, 341: "Grata laboratæ referens oblivia vitæ." Steevens. 1 Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,] Stuff'd is the reading of the old copy; but, for the sake of the ear, which must be shocked by the recurrence of so harsh a word, I am willing to read-foul, as there is authority for the change from Shakspeare himself, in As you Like it, Act II, sc. vi: "Cleanse the foul body of the infected world." We properly speak of cleansing what is foul, but not what is stuffed. Steevens. The recurrence of the word stuff, in this passage, is very unpleasing to the ear, but there is no ground, I think, to suspect the text to be corrupt; for our author was extremely fond of such repetitions. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Now for the love of love -." All's Well that Ends Well. "Our means will make us means." Ibid. King Henry VIII. "Upon his brow shame is asbam'd to sit Romeo and Juliet. Which weighs upon the heart? Doct. Must minister to himself. Therein the patient Macb. Throw physick to the dogs, I'll none of it.Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:— Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from me:Come, sir, despatch:-If thou could'st, doctor, cast The water of my land,2 find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, King John. "For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie Macbeth. The words stuff and stuff'd, however mean they may sound at present, have, like many other terms, been debased by time, and appear to have been formerly considered as words proper to be used in passages of the greatest dignity. As such Shakspeare has employed them in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, Julius Cæsar, &c. Again, in The Tempest, in a passage where the author certainly aimed at dignity: "And, like this unsubstantial pageant, faded, “Leave not a rack behind.—We are such stuff In a note on a passage in Othello, Dr. Johnson observes, that "stuff, in the Teutonick language, is a word of great force. The elements (he adds) are called in Dutch hoefd stoffen, or bead stuffs." Malone. The present question is not concerning the dignity of the word-stuffed, but its nauseous iteration, of which no example has been produced by Mr. Malone; for that our author has indulged himself in the repetition of harmonious words, is no proof that he would have repeated harsh ones. I may venture also (in support of my opinion) to subjoin, that the same gentleman, in a very judicious comment on King Henry IV, P. II, has observed, "that when a word is repeated without propriety, in the same, or two succeeding lines, there is great reason to suspect some corruption." Steevens. The water of my land,] To cast the water was the phrase in use for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine. So, in Eliosto Libidinoso, a novel, by John Hinde, 1606: "Lucilla perceiving, without casting her water, where she was pained," &c. Again, in The wise Woman of Hogsdon, 1 38: "Mother Nottingham, for her time, was pretty well skilled in casting waters. Steevens. I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.-Pull 't off, I say.- Would scour these English hence?-Hearest thou of them? Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. Bring it after me. [Exit. [Exit. Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. SCENE IV. Country near Dunsinane: A Wood in view. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNess, AnGUS, LENOX, Rosse, and Soldiers, marching. Mal. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing. The wood of Birnam. Siw. What wood is this before us? Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant* Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before 't. 'Tis his main hope: Mal. 3 senna,] The old copy reads-cyme. Steevens. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. gotten but the confident tyrant -] We must surely read: He was confident of success; so confident that he would not fly, but endure their setting down before his castle. Johnson. |