II.i.59 (439,3) And take the present horrour from the time,/Which now
suits with it] Of this passage an alteration was once proposed by me, of
which I have now a less favourable opinion, yet will insert it, as it
may perhaps give some hint to other critics:
_And take the present horrour from the time,
Which now suits with it_.--
I believe every one that has attentively read this dreadful soliloquy is
disappointed at the conclusion, which, if not wholly unintelligible, is,
at least, obscure, nor can be explained into any sense worthy of the
authour. I shall therefore propose a slight alteration:
--_Thou sound and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my where-about,
And talk--the present horrour of the time!
That now suits with it_.--
Macbeth has, in the foregoing lines, disturbed his imagination by
enumerating all the terrors of the night; at length he is wrought up to
a degree of frenzy, that makes him afraid of some supernatural discovery
of his design, and calls out to the stones not to betray him, not to
declare where he walks, nor _to talk_.--As he is going to say of what,
he discovers the absurdity of his suspicion, and pauses, but is again
overwhelmed by his guilt, and concludes, that such are the horrors of
the present night, that the stones may be expected to cry out against
him:
That _now suits with it_.
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