II.iv.24 (456,1) What good could they pretend?] To _pretend_ is here to
_propose to themselves_, to _set before themselves_ as a motive of
action.
III.i.7 (457,2) As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine] _Shine_,
for appear with all the _lustre_ of _conspicuous_ truth.
III.i.56 (459,4) as, it is said,/Mark Anthony's was by Caesar] Though I
would not often assume the critic's privilege of being confident where
certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far in departing
from the established reading; yet I cannot but propose the rejection of
this passage, which I believe was an insertion of some player, that
having so much learning as to discover to what Shakespeare alluded, was
not willing that his audience should be less knowing than himself, and
has therefore weakened the authour's sense by the intrusion of a remote
and useless image into a speech bursting from a man wholly possess'd
with his own present condition, and therefore not at leisure to explain
his own allusions to himself. If these words are taken away, by which
not only the thought but the numbers are injured, the lines of
Shakespeare close together without any traces of a breach.
_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.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38