tor alters very properly "Rebellious dead" of the old copies, into
"Rebellion's head rise never till the wood
Of Birnam rise."
Theobald had got the length of changing "dead" into head, but the alteration of "rebellious" into rebellion's is due to the old corrector, and it is decidedly an improvement.
When Macbeth has resolved to seize Macduff's castle, and put his wife and children to the sword, he exclaims—
"This deed I'll do before this purpose cool,
But no more sights!"
The MS. corrector proposes flights, and not without some show of reason. Macbeth has just been informed that Macduff has fled to England, and the escape has evidently discomposed him, as placing beyond his reach his most deadly enemy. Accordingly, he is supposed by the MS. corrector to exclaim, "No more flights! I must take care that no more of that party escape me." But, on the other hand, Macbeth, a minute before, has been inveighing against the witches. He says—
"Infected be the air whereon they ride,
And damned all that trust them!"
So that "But no more sights" may mean, I will have no more dealings with these infernal hags. The word "But" seems to be out of place in connection with "flights"—and therefore we pronounce in favour of the old reading.
Scene 3.—Malcolm, speaking of himself, says—
"In whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted,
That when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
Shall seem as pure as snow."
"Here," says Mr Collier, "as has been said on many former occasions, 'opened' affords sense, but so inferior to that given by the correction of the folio 1632, that we need not hesitate in concluding that Shakespeare, carrying on the figure suggested by the word 'grafted' as applied to fruit, must have written—
"That when they shall be ripened, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow."'
But does not Mr Collier see that the metaphor is one which does not turn upon fruit at all, but that it turns upon flowers? And who ever heard of flowers ripening? That the allusion is to flowers is obvious from this, that Malcolm's vices are said to surpass Macbeth's in their colour. "Compared with me, black Macbeth shall seem as pure as snow." What confusion of ideas can have put fruit into the dunderhead of the corrector, and what obliquity of judgment should have led Mr Collier to affirm, that "opened" affords a sense so inferior to ripened, it is very difficult to comprehend. In his appendix, Mr Collier says, "an objection to ripened instead of 'opened,' may be, that Malcolm is representing these 'particulars of vice' in him as already at maturity." Not at all; that would have been no objection. His vices were immature, but their immaturity was that of flowers, and not that of fruits. So that Mr Collier is equally at fault in his reasons for and in his reasons against the word "opened." This is not pretty in a man who has some claims to be regarded as one of the greatest Shakespearian scholars of the day.
The MS. corrector in no way redeems his character by suggesting a decided alteration for the worse in the line where Macduff says to Malcolm—
"You may
Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty."
Read enjoy, says the corrector. We have no doubt that "convey" is the right word—only we had better punctuate the line thus,
"Convey your pleasures in,—a spacious plenty;"
i.e. Gather them in,—an abundant harvest.
Act V. Scene 2.—In the lines in which the unsettled condition of Macbeth's mind is alluded to, the corrector proposes a specious though far from necessary amendment.
"But for certain,
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule."
The MS. correction is course; i.e. course of action, which is distempered by the shattered condition of his nerves. But "cause" fits the place perfectly well, if taken for his affairs generally, his whole system of procedure; and therefore we are of opinion that the text ought not to be disturbed.
Scene 3. In the line where Macbeth says—
