As I shall find the time to friend,-] The expression "to friend," meaning propitious, assistant, favourable, &c. occurs again in Cymbeline," Act I. Sc. 4,-"Had I admittance and opportunity to friend;" and in "Julius Cæsar," Act III. Sc. 1,"I know that we shall have him well to friend." It is not uncommon in our old poets. Thus, in Spenser, "Faerie Queen," Book I. c. 1, Stanza xxviii. :—

"So forward on his way (with God to frend)
He passed forth; '

and also in Massinger's play of "The Roman Actor," Act I. Sc. 1,

"with this assurance,

That the state, sick in him, the gods to friend,
Though at the worst will now begin to mend."

b You may deserve of him through me;] Theobald's correction.

The title is affeer'd!"-Fare thee well, lord:
I would not be the villain that thou think'st
For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp,
And the rich East to boot.

MAL.

Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds: and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds: I think, withal, There would be hands uplifted in my right; And here, from gracious England, have I offer Of goodly thousands: but, for all this, When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country Shall have more vices than it had before; More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever, By him that shall succeed.

MACD.

What should he be? MAL. It is myself I mean: in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted, That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd With my confineless harms.

MACD.

Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd In evils to top Macbeth!

e

MAL. I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name: but there's no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up The cistern of my lust; and my desire All continent impediments would o'erbear, That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth, Than such an one to reign. MACD.

the old text having,

Boundless intemperance

d The title is affeer'd!] To affeer-a legal term-signifies to assess or confirm; and the meaning of the passage may, therefore, be, "Great tyranny, be firmly seated now, since goodness dare not curb thee! Wear openly thy ill-got acquisitions, for the title to them is approved!"

e Sudden,-] Impetuous, violent.

In nature is a tyranny; it hath been
The untimely emptying of the happy throne,
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
To take upon you what is yours: you may
Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.
We have willing dames enough; there cannot be
That vulture in you, to devour so many
As will to greatness dedicate themselves
Finding it so inclin'd.

MAL.
With this, there grows,
In my most ill-compos'd affection, such
A stanchless avarice, that, were I king,
I should cut off the nobles for their lands;
Desire his jewels, and this other's house :
And my more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more; that I should forge
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.

MACD.

This avarice

Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root
Than summer-seeming lust; and it hath been
The sword of our slain kings: yet do not fear;
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will,
Of your mere own. All these are portable,
With other graces weigh'd.

MAL. But I have none: the king-becoming graces,

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perséverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them; but abound
In the division of each several crime,

For

you may

Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,-] convey," signifying to manage any thing by stealth, an admirably appropriate word here, Mr. Collier substitutes the comparatively inexpressive one enjoy, and styles it an "important change"! That Mr. Collier should be unacquainted with the following quotation, where "convey occurs in precisely the same sense as Shakespeare uses it above, is pardonable,-" But verily, verily, though the adulterer do never so closely and cunningly convey his sin under a canopy, yet," &c.-The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven, 1599:-but how comes he to have forgotten that the word is found in the corresponding passage of "The History of Makbeth," which he himself edited? Macduff there says, in reply to Malcolm's confession of immoderate sensuality, "Make thy selfe king, and I shall conveie the matter so wiselie, that thou shalt be so satisfied at thy pleasure in such secret wise, that no man shall be aware thereof."

b-summer-seeming lust;] Warburton proposed to read, "sum

By his own interdiction stands accurs'd,
And does blaspheme his breed?-Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore
thee,-

Oft'ner upon her knees than on her feet,—
Died every day she liv'd. Fare thee well!
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
Have banish'd me from Scotland.-O, my breast,
Thy hope ends here!

MAL

Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of integrity, hath from my soul
Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts
To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me
From over-credulous haste: but God above.
Deal between thee and me! for even now
I put myself to thy direction, and
Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure
The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
For strangers to my nature. I am yet
Unknown to woman; never was forsworn ;
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own;
At no time broke my faith: would not betray
The devil to his fellow; and delight

No less in truth than life: my first false speaking
Was this upon myself.—What I am truly,
Is thine, and my poor country's, to command:
Whither, indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
Already at a point, was setting forth;

Now we'll together: and the chance of goodness Belike our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?

MACD. Such welcome and unwelcome things at

once, "Tis hard to reconcile.(3)

Enter a Doctor.

MAL. Well; more anon.-Comes the king forth, I pray you?

DocT. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched

souls

That stay his cure: their malady convinces

mer-teeming;" Blackstone, "summer-seeding;" while Steevens conjectured that summer-seeming" might be right, and signify Just that seems as hot as summer. As Malone has quoted from Donne's Poems "winter-seeming,' we are unwilling to disturb the old text, though we have a strong persuasion that the poet wrote, "summer-seaming lust," i. e. lust fattened by suminer heat.

c Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,-] By "hell," may be meant confusion, anarchy, disorder, and if so, we ought possibly to read, "Sour the sweet milk," &c.

The great assay of art; but, at his touch,
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
They presently amend.

MAL. I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor.
MACD. What's the disease he means?
MAL.
"Tis call'd the evil;
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures ;
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,

He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;

And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace.

MACD.
See, who comes here?
MAL. My countryman; but yet I know him

MACD. Be not a niggard of your speech; how goes 't?

Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings,

Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour
Of many worthy fellows that were out;
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot :
Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland
Would create soldiers, make our women fight,
To doff their dire distresses.

MAL.
Be 't their comfort
We are coming thither: gracious England hath
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men ;
An older and a better soldier none

That Christendom gives out.

Ross.

Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words That would be howl'd out in the desert air, Where hearing should not latch them.

MACD.

The general cause? or is it Due to some single breast? Ross.

b

No mind that's honest But in it shares some woe; though the main part Pertains to you alone.

MACD.

If it be mine,

Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!

MAL. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief,

Convert to anger, blunt not the heart, enrage it. MACD. O, I could play the woman with mine