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,