[66]
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none, but he,
Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My Genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cæsar.[1]He chid the Sisters,
When first they put the name of King upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,
- ↑ " under him,
My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cæsar."
This comparison of Banquo and himself to Octavius Cæsar and Mark Antony, is very just; and of importance to the present question, as it elucidates the sense in which Macbeth always uses the word Fear, with reference to Banquo. Shakspeare found the circumstances here alluded to, in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives:—"With Antonius there was a Soothsayer or Astronomer of Ægypt, that could cast a figure,
