hall be king.

_Macb._ And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?"

So surely is the guilt in its germ anterior to the supposed cause, and
immediate temptation! Before he can cool, the confirmation of the tempting
half of the prophecy arrives, and the concatenating tendency of the
imagination is fostered by the sudden coincidence:--

"Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind."

Oppose this to Banquo's simple surprise:--

"What, can the devil speak true?"

_Ib._ Banquo's speech:--

"That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor."

I doubt whether "enkindle" has not another sense than that of
"stimulating;" I mean of "kind" and "kin," as when rabbits are said to
"kindle." However, Macbeth no longer hears anything _ab extra_:--

"Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme."

Then in the necessity of recollecting himself,--

"I thank you, gentlemen."

Then he relapses into himself again, and every word of his soliloquy shows
the early birth-date of his guilt. He is all-powerful without strength; he
wishes the end, but is irresolute as to the means; conscience distinctly
warns him, and he lulls it imperfectly:--

"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir."

Lost in the prospective of his guilt, he turns round alarmed lest others
may suspect what is passing in his own mind, and instantly vents the lie
of ambition:--

"My dull brain was wrought
With things _forgotten_;"--

and immediately after pours forth the promising courtesies of a usurper in
intention:--

... "Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register'd where every day I turn
The leaf to read them."

_Ib._ Macbeth's speech:--

... "Present _fears_
Are less than horrible imaginings."

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 Cawdor had made way! And
here in contrast with Dunca