—­sit down at first,
And last a hearty welcome.

But for last should then be written next.  I believe the true reading is,

  You know your own degrees, sit down—­To first
  And last the hearty welcome.

All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be assured that their visit is well received.

NOTE XXIX

  Macbeth.—­There’s blood upon thy face.
                              [—­To the murderer, aside at the door.]
  Murderer.  ’Tis Banquo’s then.
  Macbeth.  ’Tis better thee without, than he within.

The sense apparently requires that this passage should be read thus: 

’Tis better thee without, than him within.

That is, I am more pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy face, than in his body.

NOTE XXX.

Lady Macbeth.  O proper stuff! 
This is the very painting of your fear: 
[Aside to Macbeth. 
This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,
Led you to Duncan.  Oh, these flaws and starts,
Impostures to true fear, would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
Authoriz’d by her grandam.  Shame itself! 
Why do you make such faces?  When all’s done,
You look but on a stool.

As starts can neither with propriety nor sense be called impostures to true fear, something else was undoubtedly intended by the author, who, perhaps, wrote,

—­These flaws and starts,
Impostures true to fear, would well become
A woman’s story.—­

These symptoms of terrour and amazement might better become impostors true only to fear, might become a coward at the recital of such falsehoods, as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weakened by his terrours; tales, told by a woman over a fire on the authority of her grandam.

NOTE XXXI.

Macbeth.—­Love and health to all! 
Then I’ll sit down:  give me some wine, fill full:—­
I drink to the general joy of the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.—­

Though this passage is, as it now stands, capable of more meanings than one, none of them are very satisfactory; and, therefore, I am inclined to read it thus: 

—­to all, and him, we thirst,
And hail to all.

Macbeth, being about to salute his company with a bumper, declares that he includes Banquo, though absent, in this act of kindness, and wishes health to all. Hail or heil for health was in such continual use among the good-fellows of ancient times, that a drinker was called a was-heiler, or a wisher of health, and the liquor was termed was-heil, because health was so often wished over it.  Thus in the lines of Hanvil the monk,