Act 1 — SCENE VI.
Reading edition
Malcolm.—Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. He dy'd, As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, As 'twere a careless trifle.
As the word ow'd affords here no sense, but such as is forced and unnatural, it cannot be doubted that it was originally written, The dearest thing he own'd; a reading which needs neither defence nor explication.
NOTE X.
King.—There's no art, To find the mind's construction in the face:
The construction of the mind is, I believe, a phrase peculiar to Shakespeare; it implies the frame or disposition of the mind, by which it is determined to good or ill.
NOTE XI.
Macbeth. The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part Is to receive our duties; and our duties Are to your throne and state, children and servants; Which do but what they should, by doing every thing Safe tow'rd your love and honour.
Of the last line of this speech, which is certainly, as it is now read, unintelligible, an emendation has been attempted, which Dr. Warburton and Mr. Theobald have admitted as the true reading:
—our duties Are to your throne and state, children and servants, Which do but what they should, in doing every thing Fiefs to your love and honour.
My esteem for these criticks, inclines me to believe, that they cannot be much pleased with the expressions, Fiefs to love, or Fiefs to honour; and that they have proposed this alteration, rather because no other occurred to them, than because they approved it. I shall, therefore, propose a bolder change, perhaps, with no better success, but "sua cuique placent." I read thus,
—our duties Are to your throne and state, children and servants, Which do but what they should, in doing nothing, Save tow'rd your love and honour.
We do but perform our duty, when we contract all our views to your service, when we act with no other principle than regard to your love and honour.
It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing safe for save, and the lines then stood thus:
—doing nothing Safe tow'rd your love and honour.
Which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not being able to discover the real fault, altered to the present reading.