The authour might mean, _It is better that Banquo's blood were on thy
face, than_ he _in this room_. Expressions thus imperfect are common in
his works.
III.iv.33 (472,2) the feast is sold] The meaning is,--That which ia not
_given cheerfully_, cannot be called a _gift_, it is something that must
be paid for. (1773)
III.iv.57 (473,3) extend his passion] Prolong his suffering; make his
fit longer.
III.iv.60 (473,4) O proper stuff!] This speech is rather too long for
the circumstances in which it is spoken. It had begun better at, _Shame
itself_!
III.iv.63 (473,5)
Oh, these flaws, and starts,
(Impostors to true fear,) would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Authoriz'd by her grandam]
_Flaws_, are _sudden gusts_. The authour perhaps wrote,
--_Those flaws and starts_,
Impostures true to fear _would well become_;
_A woman's story_,--
These symptoms of terrour and amazement might better become _impostures
true_ only _to fear, might become a coward at the recital of such
falsehoods as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weaken'd
by his terrours; tales told by a woman over a fire on the authority of
her grandam_.
III.iv.76 (474,6) Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal] The _gentle
weal_, is, the _peaceable community_, the state made quiet and safe by
_human statutes_.
_Mollia securae peragebant otia gentes_.
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