" 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.
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