_
_Advantage or 'vantage_, in the time of Shakespeare, signified
_opportunity_. _He shut up himself and his soldiers_, (says Malcolm) _in
the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone they all
desert him_.
_More and less_ is the same with _greater and less_. So in the
interpolated _Mandeville_, a book of that age, there is a chapter of
_India the More and the Less_.
V.iv.20 (522,4) arbitrate]--_arbitrate_ is _determine_.
V.v.11 (523,3) fell of hair] My hairy part, my _capillitium_. _Fell_ is
_skin_.
V.v.17 (523,7) She should have dy'd hereafter;/ There would have been a
time for such a word] This passage has very justly been suspected of
being corrupt. It is not apparent for what _word_ there would have been
a _time_, and that there would or would not be a _time_ for any _word_
seems not a consideration of importance sufficient to transport Macbeth
into the following exclamation. I read therefore,
_She should have dy'd hereafter.
There would have been a time for--such a_ world!--
_Tomorrow_, &c.
It is a broken speech in which only part of the thought is expressed,
and may be paraphrased thus: _The queen is dead_. Macbeth. _Her death
should have been deferred to some more peaceful hour; had she liv'd
longer_, there would at length have been a time for the _honours due to
her as a queen, and that respect which I owe her for her fidelity and
love.
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