Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies | Page 5

regard to your love and honour.
It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing safe for save, and the lines then stood thus:
--_doing nothing Safe toward your love and honour._
which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not being able to discover the real fault, altered to the present reading.
Dr. Warburton has since changed fiefs to _fief'd_, and Hanmer has altered safe to _shap'd_. I am afraid none of us have hit the right word.
I.v.2 (420, 6) _by the perfected report_] By the best intelligence. Dr. Warburton would read, perfected, and explains report by prediction. Little regard can be paid to an emendation that instead of clearing the sense, makes it more difficult.
I.v.23 (420, 7) thoud'st have, great Glamis,/That which cries, _Thus thou must do, if thou have it_] As the object of Macbeth's desire is here introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read,
--_thoud'st have, great Glamis, That which cries_, thus thou must do, if thou have me.
I.v.39 (422, 8) The raven himself is hoarse] Dr. Warburton reads,
--_The raven himself's_ not hoarse.
Yet I think the present words may stand. The messenger, says the servant, had hardly breath _to make up his message_; to which the lady answers mentally, that he may well want breath, such a message would add hoarseness to the raven. That even the bird, whose harsh voice is accustomed to predict calamities, could not croak the entrance of Duncan but in a note of unwonted harshness.
I.v.42 (422, 2) mortal thoughts] This expression signifies not the thoughts of mortals, but _murtherous, deadly_, or destructive designs. So in act 5,
Hold fast the mortal sword.
And in another place,
With twenty mortal murthers.
I.v.47 (422, 3) nor keep peace between/The effect, and it!] The intent of lady Macbeth evidently is to wish that no womanish tenderness, or conscientious remorse, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect; but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, is expressed by the present reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shakespeare wrote differently, perhaps thus,
_That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep_ pace _between Th' effect, and it_.--
To keep pace between may signify to pass between, to intervene. Pace is on many occasions a favourite of Shakespeare's. This phrase is indeed not usual in this sease, but was it not its novelty that gave occasion to the present corruption? [The sense is, that no compunctious visitings of nature may prevail upon her, to give place in her mind to peaceful thoughts, or to rest one moment in quiet, from the hour of her purpose to its full completion in the effect. REVISAL.] This writer thought himself perhaps very sagacious that be found a meaning which nobody missed, the difficulty still remains how such a meaning is made by the words. (see 1765, VI, 394, 6)
I.v.49 (423, 5) take my milk for gall] Take away my milk, and put gall into the place.
I.v.51 (423, 6) You wait on nature's mischief!] _Nature's mischief_ is mischief done to nature, violation of nature's order committed by wickedness.
I.v.55 (423,8) To cry, _hold, hold_!] On this passage there is a long criticism in the Rambler.
I.v.58 (424,1) This ignorant present time] Ignorant has here the signification of _unknowing_; that it, I feel by anticipation these future hours, of which, according to the process of nature, the present time would be ignorant.
I.vi.3 (425,3) our gentle senses] Senses are nothing more _than each man's sense_. Gentle senses is very elegant, as it means placid, calm, composed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. (see 1765, VI,396,2)
I.vi.7 (426,5) coigne of 'vantage] Convenient corner.
I.vi.13 (426,7) How you should bid god-yield as for your pains] I believe yield, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, eyld, is a corrupted contraction of shield. The wish implores not reward but protection.
I.vii.1 (428,1) If it were _done_] A man of learning recommends another punctuation:
_If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well. It were done quickly, if, &c._
I.vii.2 (428,2) If the assassination/Could tramel up the consequence] Of this soliloquy the meaning is not very clear; I have never found the readers of Shakespeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus,
"If that which I am about to do, when it is once done and executed, were done and ended without any following effects, it would then be best _to do it quickly_; if the murder could terminate in itself, and restrain the regular course of consequences, if its success could secure its surcease, if being once done successfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all vengeance and enquiry, so that this blow might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I have to suffer; if this could be my condition, even here in this world, in this contracted period