I must become a borrower of the night
For a dark hour or twain.

Macb. Fail not our feaft,
Ban. My Lord, I will not.

Mach. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd
In England, and in Ireland; not confefsing
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
With strange invention; but of that to-morrow;
When therewithal we shall have cause of state,
Craving us jointly. Hie to horse: adieu,
Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
Ban: Ay, my good Lord; our time does call upon us,
Mach. I with your horses swift, and fure of foot:

And so I do commend you to their backs.
Farewel.

[Exit Banquo

Let ev'ry man be master of his time (20) 'Till feven at night; to make society

The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself

Till supper-time alone: 'till then, God be with you.

[Exeunt Lady Macbeth, and Lords

Manent Macbeth, and a Servant.

Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men
Our pleasure?

Ser. They are, my Lord, without the palace-gate. Macb. Bring them before us-To be thus, is nothing; [Exit Servant

But to be safely thus. - Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that, which would be fear'd. 'Tis much he dares,

(20) Let ev'ry man be master of bis time

'Till foven at night, to make fociety
The sweeter welcome: We will keep ourself

"Till fupper time alone.] I am furpriz'd, none of the editors should quarrel with the pointing. How could ev'ry man's being master of his own time 'till night, make society then the sweeter? for, fo, every man might have gone into company in the mean while, and pall'd himself for the night's entertainment. My regulation, I dare warrant, retrieves the poet's meaning. "Let every man (fays the "King,) be master of his own time 'till seven o' clock and that I

may have the stronger enjoyment of your companies then, I'll

**abstain from all company 'till fupper-time."

And

And to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in fafety. There is none but he,
Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My genius is rebuk'd; as it is faid,
Antony's was by Cafar. He chid the fifters,
When first they put the name of King upon me,
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 scepter in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No fon of mine succeeding. If 'tis so,
For Banquo's issue have I 'fil'd my mind:
For them, the gracious Duncan have I murder'd:
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them: and mine eternal jewel
Giv'n to the common enemy of man,
To make them Kings: the feed of Banquo Kings:
Rather than so, come fate into the lift,

And champion me to th' utterance! - who's there?

Enter Servant, and two Murderers.

Go to the door, and stay there, 'till we call. [Exit Str.
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?

Mur. It was, so please your Highness.
Mach. Well then, now

You have confider'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 conf'rence, paft in probation with you:
How you were borne in hand, how crost; the inftruments,
Who wrought with them: and all things else, that might
To half a foul, and to a notion craz'd,

Say, thus did Banquo.

1 Mur. True, you made it known.
Macb. I did fo; and went further, which is now

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

04

That

That you can let this go? are you so gospell'd,
To pray for this good man and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave,
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 greyhounds, mungrels, spaniels, curs, Showghes, water-rugs, and demy-wolves are cleped All by the name of dogs: the valued file Diftinguishes the swift, the flow, the fubtle, 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 fickly in his life, Which in his death were perfect.

/ 2 Mur. I am one,

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

I 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.

Mach. Both of you

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

Mach. So is he mine: and in such bloody distance,

*That every minute of his being thrufts
Against my near'st of life; and though I could
With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my fight,
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

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 fundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur. We shall, my Lord,

Perform what you command us.

[moft,

1 Mur. Though our lives-
Macb. Your spirits shine through you. In this hour, at

I will advise you where to plant yourselves;
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' th' time,
The moment on't; (for't must be done to-night, (21)
And fomething from the palace: always thought,
That I require a clearness :) and with him,
(To leave no rubs nor botches in the work)
Fleance his fon, that keeps him company,
(Whose abfence is no less material to me,
Than is his father's) must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves a-part,
I'll come to you anon.

Mur. We are resolv'd, my Lord.
Mach. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.

(21) for't must be done to night,

[Exeunt Murderers.

And fomething from the palace: always thought, That I require a clearness:] The latter branch of this sentence Mr. Pope has funk upon us, in both his editions, tho' it is authoriz'd by all the preceding copies. If I may venture to guess at the reason of his suppreffing these words, it was because he did not understand them: but Macbeth means, that the murderers must in every step remember, he requires not to be suspected of the fact; to stand clear from all imputations, which might affect him in the opinions of people. I have frequently observ'd, how minutely Shakespeare is used to follow his hiftory in little particular circumstances. This is one signal instance. Let us hear honest Holingshead (from whom he has copied this whole tale) in his history of Scotland p. 172. He willed therefore the same Banqubo with his fon named Fleance to come to a supper that he had prepared for them; which was, indeed, as he had devised, present death at the hands of certain Murderers whom he hired to execute that deed; appointing them to meet with the lame Banqubo and his son without the palace, as they returned to their lodgings, and there to flea them, so that be would not have his house flandered; but that in time to come he might clear bimself, if any thing were laid to his charge upon any fufpicion that might arife.

It is concluded; - Banquo, thy soul's flight,
If it find heav'n, must find it out to-night.

[Exit

SCENE, another Apartment in the Palace.

Enter Lady Macbeth, and a Servant.

Lady.TS Banque gone from court

Ser. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. Lady. Say to the King, I would attend his leifure For a few words.

Ser. Madam, I will.

Lady. Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our defire is got without content:
'Tis fafer to be that which we destroy,
Than by deftruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter Macbeth.

[Exit

How now, my Lord, why do you keep alone?
Of forrieft fancies your companions making,
Ufing those thoughts, which should, indeed, have dy'd
With them they think on? things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what's done, is done.

Mach. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it--(22)
She'll

(22) Welave scorch'd the snake, not kill' d it, Ste'll clofe, and be berfelf;] This is a passage, which has all along pafied current thro' the editions, and yet, I dare affirm, is not our author's reading. What has a snake, closing again, to do with its being foorch'd? scorching would never either feparate, or dilate, its parts; but rather make them instantly contract and shrivel. SHAKESPEARE, I am very well perfuaded, had this notion in his head; that if you cut a ferpent or worm asunder, in several pieces, there is fuch an unctuous quality in their blood, that the dismember'd parts, being only placed near enough to touch one another, will cement and become as whole as before the injury receiv'd. The application of this thought is to Duncan, the murder'd King, and his surviving fons. Macbeth confiders them so much as members of the father, that tho he has cut off the old man, he would say, he has not entirely kill'd him, but he'll revive again in the lives of his fons. Can we doubt therefore but that the poet wrote, as I have restor'd to the text,

We have fooch'd the snake, not killd it?

To frotch, however the generality of our Dictionaries happen to omit

the