Page:Macbeth (1918) Yale.djvu/109

Macbeth ravell'd sleeve. The word 'ravel' originally meant 'tangle,' but by Shakespeare's time it had already become confused with 'unravel,' and so might mean either 'tangle' or 'fray out.' Sleeve also admits of two interpretations. It may be used in the ordinary sense, or it may be a variant spelling of 'sleave,' a word somewhat loosely applied to various kinds of raw silk. If 'sleeve' is here used in the latter sense, 'ravell'd' means 'tangled,' and the whole phrase refers to the difficulties of the careworn weaver or spinner, when he has 'tangled silk fibres' to handle. Most modern editors adopt this interpretation, and actually change 'sleeve' to 'sleave' in the text. To the present editor the alteration seems unjustifiable. Shakespeare may have meant simply the 'frayed sleeve' of a person whom care has made negligent. From a purely literary point of view, each interpretation has its own advantages.

farmer. The Porter fancies that a farmer (who is knocking at hell's gate) had hoarded grain; but the prospect of a plentiful crop lowered prices and ruined him.

equivocator. This word became a jest in March, 1606, through the trial for treason of Henry Garnet, a detested Jesuit, who committed perjury and afterwards explained it as mere 'equivocation.'

vault. This word is used in a double sense, suggesting both a wine-cellar and the world with its overarching sky.

nature. This means not Duncan's merely human nature, but the whole order of the universe. It seemed as if Chaos were come again.

go not my horse the better. Unless my horse go faster (than is to be expected).

The sense is: Ay, in a mere list of objects you would pass for men; as various kinds of dogs are called just 'dogs'; but the list that gives