On a Passage in "Macbeth."—Macbeth (Act I. Sc. 7.) says:
"I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other."
Should not the third line be—
"Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps its sell!"
Sell is saddle (Latin, sella; French, selle), and is used by Spenser in this sense.
"O'erleaping itself" is manifest nonsense; whereas the whole passage has evident reference to horsemanship; and to "vault" is "to carry one's body cleverly over anything of a considerable height, resting one hand upon the thing itself,"—exactly the manner in which some persons mount a horse, resting one hand on the pommel of the saddle.
It would then be perfectly intelligible, thus—