Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies. Samuel Johnson
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.
IV.iii.23 (501,5) Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,/Yet grace must look still so] This is not very clear. The meaning perhaps is this:—My suspicions cannot injure you, if you be virtuous, by supposing that a traitor may put on your virtuous appearance. I do not say that your virtuous appearance proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though that form be often counterfeited by villany.
IV.iii.26 (502,6) Why in that rawness left you wife and children] Without previous provision, without due preparation, without maturity of counsel.
IV.iii.33 (502,7) Wear thou thy wrongs] That is, Poor country, wear thou thy wrongs.
IV.iii.69 (503,1) Sudden, malicious] [Sudden, for capricious. WARBUR.] Rather violent, passionate, hasty.
IV.iii.85 (504,2) Than summer seeming lust] When I was younger and bolder I corrected it thus,
Than fume, or seething lust.
that is, Than angry passion, or boiling lust. (1773)
IV.iii.135 (506,4) All ready at a point] [W: at appoint] There is no need of change.
IV.iii.136 (506,5) and the chance of goodness/Be like our warranted quarrel!] The chance of goodness, as it is commonly read, conveys no sense. If there be not some more important errour in the passage, 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 justitia divina] answerable to the cause.
The author of the Revisal conceives the sense of the passage to be rather this: And may the success of that goodness, which is about to exert itself in my behalf, be such as may be equal to the justice of my quarrel.
But I am inclined to believe that Shakespeare wrote,
—and the chance, O goodness,
Be like our warranted quarrel!—
This some of his transcribers wrote with a small o, which another imagined to mean of. If we adopt this reading, the sense will be, and O thou sovereign Goodness, to whom we now appeal, may our fortune answer to our cause. (see 1765, VI, 462, 7)
IV.iii.170 (508,9) A modern ecstacy] I believe modern is only foolish or trifling.
IV.iii.196 (509,2), fee-grief] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh.
IV.iii.216 (511,4) He has no children] It has been observed by an anonymous critic, that this is not said of Macbeth, who had children, but of Malcolm, who having none, supposes a father.
V.i.86 (515,8) My mind she has mated] [Conquer'd or subdued. POPE.] Rather astonished, confounded.
V.ii.24 (516,1) When all that is within him does condemn/Itself, for being there?] That is, when all the faculties of the mind are employed in self-condemnation.
V.iii.1 (516,2) Bring me no more reports] Tell me not any more of desertions—Let all ny subjects leave me—I am safe till, &c.
V.iii.8 (517,3) English Epicures] The reproach of Epicurism, 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.
V.iii.22 (518,6) my way of life/Is fall'n into the sear] As there is no relation between the way of life, and fallen into the sear, I am inclined to think that the W is only an M inverted, and that it was originally written,
—my May of life.
I am now passed from the spring to the autumn of my days, but I am without those comforts that should succeed the spriteliness of bloom, and support me in this melancholy season.
The authour has May in the same sense elsewhere.
V.iv.8 (521,1) the confident tyrant/Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure/Our setting down before't] He was confident of success; so confident that he would not fly, but endure their setting down before his castle.
V.iv.11 (521,2) For where there is advantage to be given,/ Both more and less have given him the revolt] The impropriety of the expression, advantage to be given, and the disagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read,
—where there is a 'vantage to be gone,
Both more and less have given him the revolt.
Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakespeare, signified opportunity. He shut up himself and his soldiers, (says Malcolm) in the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone they all desert him.
More and less is the same with greater and less. So in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India the More and the Less.
V.iv.20 (522,4) arbitrate]—arbitrate is determine.
V.v.11 (523,3) fell of hair] My hairy part, my capillitium. Fell is skin.
V.v.17 (523,7) She should have dy'd hereafter;/ There would have been a time for such a word] This passage has very justly been suspected 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 seems not a consideration of importance sufficient to transport Macbeth into the following exclamation. I read therefore,
She should have dy'd hereafter.
There would have been a time for—such a world!—
Tomorrow, &c.
It is a broken speech in which only part of the thought is expressed, and may be paraphrased thus: The queen is dead. Macbeth. Her death should have been deferred to some more peaceful hour; had she liv'd longer, there would at length have been a time for the honours due to her as a queen, and that respect which I owe her for her fidelity and love. Such is the world—such is the condition of human life, that we always think