Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  My genius is rebuk’d. He chid the sisters.

  This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shakespeare’s manner, and I do not now think it of much weight; for though the words, which I was once willing to eject, seem interpolated, I believe they may still be genuine, and added by the authour in his revision. The authour of the Revisal cannot admit the measure to be faulty. There is only one foot, he says, put for another. This is one of the effects of literature in minds not naturally perspicacious. Every boy or girl finds the metre imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a tribrachys or an anapaest, and sets it right at once by applying to one language the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like the old comic writers, it will not be easy to write a line not metrical. To hint this once, is sufficient. (see 1765, VI, 424, 2)

  III.i.65 (460,5) For Banquo’s issue have I fil’d my mind] [W: ‘filed] This mark of contraction is not necessary. To file is in the bishop’s Bible.

  III.i.69 (460,6) the common enemy of man] It is always an entertainment to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source; and therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being informed, that Shakespeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of the Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expression, however, he might have had in many other places. The word fiend signifies enemy.

  III.i.71 (461,7) come, Fate, into the list,/And champion me to the utterance!] This passage will be best explained by translating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed, “Que la destinée se rende en lice, et qu’elle me donne un defi a l’outrance.” A challenge or a combat a l’outrance, to extremity, was a fix’d term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is, Let Fate, that has foredoom’d the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. [Johnson quotes Warburton’s note] After the former explication, Dr. Warburton was desirous to seem to do something; and he has therefore made Fate the marshal, whom I had made the champion, and has left Macbeth to enter the lists without an opponent.

  III.i.88 (462,9) Are you so gospell’d] Are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospeller was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of protestantism.

  III.i.94 (463,1) Showghes] Showghes are probably what we now call shocks, demi-wolves, lyciscae; dogs bred between wolves and dogs. (1773)

  III.i.95 (463,2) the valued file] In this speech the word file occurs twice, and seems in both places to have a meaning different from its present use. The expression, valued file, evidently means, a list or catalogue of value. A station in the file, and not in the worst rank, may mean, a place in the list of manhood, and not in the lowest place. But file seems rather to mean in this place, a post of honour; the first rank, in opposition to the last; a meaning which I have not observed in any other place. (1773)

  III.i.112 (465,2) So weary with disasters, tug’d with fortune] Tug’d with fortune may be, tug’d or worried by fortune.

  III.i.130 (465,4) Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’ the time] What is meant by the spy of the time, it will be found difficult to explain; and therefore sense will be cheaply gained by a slight alteration. — Macbeth is assuring the assassins that they shall not want directions to find Banquo, and therefore says,

  I will —

  Acquaint you with a perfect spy o’ the time.

  Accordingly a third murderer joins them afterwards at the place of action.

  Perfect is well instructed, or well informed, as in this play,

  Though in your state of honour I am perfect.

  though I am well acquainted with your quality and rank. [Warburton explained this as “the critical juncture”] How the critical juncture is the spy o’ the time I know not, but I think my own conjecture right.

  III.ii.38 (467,1) nature’s copy’s not eternal] The copy, the lease, by which they hold their lives from nature, has its time of termination limited.

  III.iii.1 (469,6) But who did bid thee join with us?] The meaning of this abrupt dialogue is this. The perfect spy, mentioned by Macbeth in the foregoing scene, has, before they enter upon the stage, given them the directions which were promised at the time of their agreement; yet one of the murderers suborned suspects him of intending to betray them; the other observes, that, by his exact knowledge of what they were to do, he appears to be employed by Macbeth, and needs not be mistrusted.

  III.iv.1 (470,9) You know your own degrees, sit down: at first,/And last the hearty welcome] As this passage stands [sit down:/At first and last], not only the numbers are very imperfect, but the sense, if any can be found, weak and contemptible. The numbers will be improved by reading,

  — sit down at first,

  And last a hearty welcome.

  But for last should then be written next. I believe the true reading is,

  You know your own degrees, sit down. — To first

  And last the hearty welcome.

  All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be assured that their visit is well received.

  III.iv.14 (471,1) ’Tis better thee without, than he within] The sense requires that this passage should be read thus:

  ’Tis better thee without, than him within.

  That is, I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy face than in his body.

  The authour might mean, It is better that Banquo’s blood were on thy face, than he in this room. Expressions thus imperfect are common in his works.

  III.iv.33 (472,2) the feast is sold] The meaning is, — That which ia not given cheerfully, cannot be called a gift, it is something that must be paid for. (1773)

  III.iv.57 (473,3) extend his passion] Prolong his suffering; make his fit longer.

  III.iv.60 (473,4) O proper stuff!] This speech is rather too long for the circumstances in which it is spoken. It had begun better at, Shame itself!

  III.iv.63 (473,5)

  Oh, these flaws, and starts,

  (Impostors to true fear,) would well become

  A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,

  Authoriz’d by her grandam]

  Flaws, are sudden gusts. The authour perhaps wrote,

  — Those flaws and starts,

  Impostures true to fear would well become;

  A woman’s story, —

  These symptoms of terrour and amazement might better become impostures true only to fear, might become a coward at the recital of such falsehoods as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weaken’d by his terrours; tales told by a woman over a fire on the authority of her grandam.

  III.iv.76 (474,6) Ere human statute purg’d the gentle weal] The gentle weal, is, the peaceable community, the state made quiet and safe by human statutes.

  Mollia securae peragebant otia gentes.

  III.iv.92 (475,7) And all to all] I once thought it should be hail to all, but I now think that the present reading is right.

  III.iv.105 (475,8) If trembling I inhabit] This is the original reading, which Mr. Pope changed to inhibit, which inhibit Dr. Warburton interprets refuse. The old reading may stand, at least as well as the emendation. Suppose we read,

  If trembling I evade it.

  III.iv.110 (476,9) Can such things be,/And overcome us, like a summer’s cloud,/Without our special wonder?] [W: Can’t] The alteration is introduced by a misinterpretation. The meaning is not that these things are like a summer-cloud, but can such wonders as these pass over us without wonder, as a casual summer cloud passes over us.

  III.iv.112 (477,1) You make me strange/Even to the disposition that
I owe] You produce in me an alienation of mind, which is probably the expression which our author intended to paraphrase.

  III.iv.124 (477,2) Augurs, and understood relations] By the word relation is understood the connection of effects with causes; to understand relations as an angur, is to know how these things relate to each other, which have no visible combination or dependence.

  III.iv.141 (479,5) You lack the season of all natures, sleep] I take the meaning to be, you want sleep, which seasons, or gives the relish to all nature. Indiget somni vitae condimenti.

  III.v.24 (480,8) vaporous drop, profound] That is, a drop that has profound, deep, or hidden qualities.

  III.v.26 (480,9) slights] Arts; subtle practices.

  III.vi (481,1) Enter Lenox, and another Lord] As this tragedy, like the rest of Shakespeare’s, is perhaps overstocked with personages, it is not easy to assign a reason why a nameless character should be introduced here, since nothing is said that might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of any other disaffected man. I believe therefore that in the original copy it was written with a very common form of contraction Lenox and An. for which the transcriber, instead of Lenox and Angus, set down Lenox and another Lord. The author had indeed been more indebted to the transcriber’s fidelity and diligence had he committed no errors of greater importance.

  III.vi.36 (482,3) and receive free honours] [Free for grateful. WARBURTON.] How can free be grateful? It may be either honours freely bestowed, not purchased by crimes; or honours without slavery, without dread of a tyrant.

  IV.i (484,5) As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it is proper in this place to observe, with how much judgment Shakespeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions:

  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.

  The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit of one of these witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be done she used to bid Rutterkin go and fly, but once when she would have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland, instead of going or flying, he only cried mew, from whence she discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to inculcate:

  Though his bark cannot be lost,

  Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

  The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of Shakespeare’s witches:

  Weary sev’n nights, nine times nine,

  Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.

  It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made one of his witches declare that she has been killing swine, and Dr. Harsenet observes, that about that time, a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft.

  Toad, that under the cold stone,

  Days and night has, thirty-one,

  Swelter’d venom sleeping got;

  Boil thou first i’the charm’d pot.

  Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means accessory to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Padocke or Toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial, upon which those that prosecuted him, Veneficium exprebrabent, charged him, I suppose, with witchcraft.

  Fillet of fenny snake,

  In the cauldron boil and bakae:

  Eye of newt, and toe of frog; —

  For a charm, &c.

  The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books de Viribus Animalium and de Mirabilibus Mundi, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets.

  Finger of birth-strangled babe,

  Ditch deliver’d by a drab; —

  It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was confessed by the woman whom king James examined, and who had of a dead body that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her share. It is observable that Shakespeare, on this great occasion, which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstanaces of horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet, the gibbet of a murderer; and even the sow, whose blood is used, must have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of judgment and genius.

  And now about the cauldron sing —

  Black spirits and white,

  Blue spirits and grey,

  Mingle, mingle, mingle,

  You that mingle say.

  And in a former part,

  — weyward sisters, hand in hand, —

  Thus do go about, about.

  Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine.

  And thrice again to make up nine!

  These two passages I have brought together, because they both seem subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of enchantment, and may both be shewn, by one quotation from Camden’s account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the uncivilised natives of that country: “When any one gets a fall, says the informer of Camden, he starts up, and, turning three times to the right, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground, and if he falls sick in two or three days, they send one of their women that is skilled in that way to the place, where she says, I call thee from the east, west, north, and south, from the groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies red, black, white.” There was likewise a book written before the time of Shakespeare, describing, amongst other properties, the colours of spirits.

  Many other circumstances might be particularised, in which Shakespeare has shown his judgment and his knowledge.

  IV.i.53 (489,6) yesty waves] That is, foaming or frothy waves.

  IV.i.88 (491,1) the round/And top of sovereignty?] This round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The top is the ornament that rises above it.

  IV.i.95 (492,3) Who can impress the forest] i.e. who can command the forest to serve him like a soldier impress’d. (1773)

  IV.i.97 (492,4) Rebellious head, rise never] Mr. Theobald, who first proposed this change [“head” for “dead”] rightly observes, that head means host, or power.

  — Douglas and the rebels met,

  A mighty and a fearful head they are.

  And again,

  His divisions — are in three heads.

  IV.i.113 (493,6) Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls] The expression of Macbeth, that the crown sears his eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up its humidity. Whence the Italian, abacinare, to blind.

  IV.i.113 (493,7) And thy air,/Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first: — /A third is like the former] In former editions,

  — and thy hair,

  Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first: —

  A third is like the former: —

  As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only enquiring from what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the hair of the second was bound with gold like that of the first; he was offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first resembled Banquo, and therefore said,

  — and thy air,

  Tho
u other gold-bound brow, is like the first.

  This Dr. Warburton has followed.

  IV.i.144 (495,2) Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits] To anticipate is here to prevent, by taking away the opportunity.

  IV.ii.9 (496,3) He wants the natural touch] Natural sensibility. He is not touched with natural affection.

  IV.ii.71 (498,7) To do worse to you, were fell cruelty] To do worse is, to let her and her children be destroyed without warning.

  IV.iii.2 (500,9) Let us rather/Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men,/ Bestride our down-faln birthdom] In former editions,

  Let us rather

  Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men,

  Bestride our downfal birthdoom. — ]

  He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts him to bestride his downfal birth-doom, is at liberty to adhere to the present text; but it is probable that Shakespeare wrote,

  — like good men,

  Bestride our downfaln birthdom —

  The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without incombrance, lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground, let us, like men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate resolution. So Falstaff says to Hal.

  When I am down, if thou wilt bestride me, so.

  Birthdom for birthright is formed by the same analogy with masterdom in this play, signifying the privileges or rights of a master.

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

  IV.iii.19 (501,4) A good and virtuous nature may recoil/In an imperial charge] A good mind may recede from goodness in the execution of a royal commission.