Roffe is about to proceed, but finding himfelf overpowered by his tenderness, breaks off abruptly, for which he makes a fhort apology and retires.

Malcolm. LET us feek out fome defolate fhade, and there

Weep our fad bofoms empty.
Macduff. Let us rather

Hold faft the mortal fword; and like good men,
Beftride our downfal birth-doom: each new morn,
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new forrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it refounds
As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out
Like fyllables of dolour.

He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts him to bestride his downfal birthdoom, is at liberty to adhere to the prefent text; but those who are willing to confefs that fuch counsel would to them be unintelligible, must endeavour to discover fome reading lefs obfcure. It is probable that Shakespeare wrote,

-Like good men,

Beftride our downfaln birthdom

The allufion is to a man from whom fomething valuable is about to be taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without encumbrance, lays it on the ground, and ftands over it with his weapon VOL. II.

I

in

in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, fays he, lies on the ground, let us, like men who are to fight for what is deareft to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obftinate refolution.

Birthdom for birthright is formed by the fame analogy with mafterdom in this play, fignifying the privileges or rights of a master.

Perhaps it might be birth-dame for mother; let us ftand over our mother that lies bleeding on the ground.

NOTE XL.

Malcolm. Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness

Be like our warranted quarrel.

The chance of goodness, as it is commonly read, conveys no fenfe. If there be not fome more i:nportant error in the paffage, it should at least be pointed thus:

And the chance, of goodness,

Be like our warranted quarrel,

That is, May the event be, of the goodness of heaven [pro juftitia divina] anfwerable to the caufe. But I am inclined to believe that Shakespeare

wrote,

And the chance, O goodness,

Be like our warranted quarrel.

This fome of his tranfcribers wrote with a fmall 0, which another imagined to mean of. If we adopt

this reading, the fenfe will be, and O thou fovereign goodness to whom we now appeal, may our fortune anfwer to our cause.

NOTE XLI.

ACT V. SCENE III.

Macbeth. BRING me no more reports, let them fly all,

'Till Birnam wood remove to Dunfinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman?.

-Fly falfe Thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures.

In the first line of this fpeech, the proper pauses are not observed in the prefent editions.

Bring me no more reports-let them fly allTell me not any more of defertions→ Let all my fubjects leave me-I am fafe till, &c.

The reproach of epicurifm, on which Mr. Theobald has bestowed a note, is nothing more than a natural invective uttered by an inhabitant of a barren country, against those who have more opportunities of luxury.

Macbeth. I HAVE liv'd long enough: my way of life Is fall'n into the fear, the yellow leaf.

As there is no relation between the way of life, and fallen into the fear, I am inclined to think, that the Wis only an M inverted, and that it was originally written, My May of life.

I am now paffed from the fpring to the autumn of my days, but I am without thofe comforts that fhould fucceed the fprightliness of bloom, and fupport me in this melancholy feafon.

NOTE XLIII.

SCENE IV.

Malcolm. 'Tis his main hope:

For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more or lefs have given him the revolt;
And none ferve with him but constrained things,
Whofe hearts are abfent too.

The impropriety of the expreffion advantage to be given, instead of advantage given, and the difagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read,

Where there is a vantage to be gone,
Both more and lefs have given him the revolt.

Advantage or vantage in the time of Shakespeare fignified opportunity.

More and lefs is the fame with greater and less. So in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India the more and the lefs.

Macbeth.WHEREFORE was that cry?
Seyton. The queen is dead.

Macbeth. She fhould (1) have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for fuch a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last fyllable of (2) recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dufty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking fhadow.

She fhould have died hereafter,

There would have been a time for fuch a word.

This paffage has very juftly been fufpected of being corrupt. It is not apparent for what word there would have been a time; and that there would or would not be a time for any word, feems not a confideration of importance fufficient to tranfport Macbeth into the following exclamation. I read therefore,

There would have been a time for-fuch a world!— To-morrow, &c.

It is a broken fpeech, in which only part of the thought is expreffed, and may be paraphrafed thus: