Warburton's note, and substitution of “feats” for “fears.”
Mercy on this most wilful ingenuity of blundering, which, nevertheless, was the very Warburton of Warburton—his inmost being! “Fears,” here, are present fear-striking objects, terribilia adstantia.
Ib. sc. 4. O! the affecting beauty of the death of Cawdor, and the presentimental speech of the king:—
“There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
Interrupted by—
“O worthiest cousin!”
on the entrance of the deeper traitor for whom [pg 236] Cawdor had made way! And here in contrast with Duncan's “plenteous joys,” Macbeth has nothing but the common-places of loyalty, in which he hides himself with “our duties.” Note the exceeding effort of Macbeth's addresses to the king, his reasoning on his allegiance, and then especially when a new difficulty, the designation of a successor, suggests a new crime. This, however, seems the first distinct notion, as to the plan of realising his wishes; and here, therefore, with great propriety, Macbeth's cowardice of his own conscience discloses itself. I always think there is something especially Shakespearian in Duncan's speeches throughout this scene, such pourings forth, such abandonments, compared with the language of vulgar dramatists, whose characters seem to have made their speeches as the actors learn them.