II.iii.117 (452,3) Here, lay Duncan,/His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood] Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of these lines by substituting _goary blood_ for _golden blood_; but it may easily be admitted that he who could on such an occasion talk of _lacing the silyer skin_, would _lace it_ with _golden blood_. No amendment can be made to this line, of which every word is equally faulty, but by a general blot. It is not improbable, that Shakespeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of antithesis and metaphor. II.iii.122 (432,5) Unmannerly breech'd with gore] An _unmannerly dagger_, and a _dagger breech'd_, or as in some editions _breech'd with_, gore, are expressions not easily to be understood. There are undoubtedly two faults in this passage, which I have endeavored to take away by reading, --_daggers_ Unmanly drench'd _with gore_:-- _I saw_ drench'd _with the King's blood the fatal daggers, not only instruments of murder but evidence of cowardice_. Each of these words might easily be confounded with that which I have substituted for it, by a hand not exact, a casual blot, or a negligent inspection, [W: Unmanly reech'd] Dr. Warburton has, perhaps, rightly put _reach'd_ for _breech'd_. II.iii.138 (454,8) In the great hand of God I stand; and thence, Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice] _Pretence_ is not act, but _simulation_, a _pretence_ of the traitor, whoever he might be, to suspect some other of the murder. I here fly to the protector of innocence from any charge which, yet _undivulg'd_, the traitor may pretend to fix upon me. II.iii.147 (454,7) This murtherous shaft that's shot,/Hath not yet lighted] The design to fix the murder opon some innocent person, has not yet taken effect. II.iv.15 (456,9) minions of their race] Theobald reads, --_minions of_ the _race_, very probably, and very poetically. II.iv.24 (456,1) What good could they pretend?] To _pretend_ is here to _propose to themselves_, to _set before themselves_ as a motive of action. III.i.7 (457,2) As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine] _Shine_, for appear with all the _lustre_ of _conspicuous_ truth.