SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers. Mach. Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. As life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors : 2 and my FELL of hair] "Fell" is skin, and is still in use in the word "fellmonger." I am indebted to Mr. Barron Field for a very happy emendation of an obviously corrupt passage in "Midsummer's-Night's Dream," Vol. ii. p. 460, which, as it relates to the word " fell," in the sense of skin or hide, I may insert here, regretting that the suggestion was not in time to be added in the proper place. The lines usually run thus : "Then krow, that I, one Snug the joiner, am Mr. Field amends them as follows : "Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am "Fell" has hitherto, as he states, been erroneously taken in the sense of cruel, "A lion fell;" but the insertion of a single letter, which had accidentally dropped out in the press, makes the whole perspicuous: Snug informing the ladies, who were likely to be frightened, that he was not "a lion fell," but merely "a lion's fell," or a man in the skin of a lion. 3 The queen, my lord, is dead.] We must suppose, that Seyton has gone to what we now call "the wing" of the stage to inquire. Mach. She should have died hereafter: There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Enter a Messenger. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story, quickly. Mess. Gracious my lord, I shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do't. Mach. Well, say, sir. Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to moves. 4 The way to DUSTY DEATH.] Shakespeare was not the first to apply the epithet "dusty" to death. Anthony Copley, in his "Fig for Fortune," 1596, has this line : "Inviting it to dusty death's defeature." There can be no doubt it is the right word, although the second folio reads "study death," and Warburton would read dusky. None of the commentators appear to have found an instance of the coupling of the two words " dusty death." 5 The wood began to move.] So in Deloney's ballad in praise of Kentishmen, published in "Strange Histories," 1607, (reprinted by the Percy Society) they conceal their numbers by the boughs of trees : "For when they spied his approach, "So that unto the Conqueror's sight, They seemed to be a walking grove, This ballad was written, unquestionably, before the year 1600. Macb. Liar, and slave! Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so. Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. Macb. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, • I care not if thou dost for me as much.- To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' the world were now undone.- SCENE VI. The Same. A Plain before the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c., and their Army with Boughs. Mal. Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down, Till famine CLING thee :] "Cling" is a word to which it is difficult to assign a precise meaning. The commentators have adduced various passages from other authors, which show that most of them used it in different senses. Steevens says, that "dung, in the northern counties, signifies any thing that is shrivelled or shrunk up." In Craven, when a wet bladder is empty, and it therefore collapses, it is said to cling, and the word is there also figuratively used for hungry or empty. See Holloway's "General Provincial Dictionary," 1838. In Sir F. Madden's admirable Glossary to "Syr Gawayne," 4to, 1839, clenged is interpreted "contracted or shrunk with cold." "Till famine cling thee" may therefore mean, " till famine shrink thee." And show like those you are. --You, worthy uncle, Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff, and we, Shall take upon's what else remains to do, According to our order. Siw. Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. Alarums continued. SCENE VII. The Same. Another Part of the Plain. Enter MACBЕТН. Mach. They have tied me to a stake: I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course. - What's he, That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. Enter young SIWARD. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. What is thy name? Macb. Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name, Than any is in hell. Macb. My name's Macbeth. Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear. No, nor more fearful. Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant: with my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. Mach. [They fight, and young SIWARD is slain. Thou wast born of woman : But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. Alarums. Enter MACDUFF. [Exit. Macd. That way the noise is. - Tyrant, show thy face! If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, [Exit. Alarum. Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD. Siw. This way, my lord. der'd: The castle's gently ren The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; The noble thanes do bravely in the war. The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do. 7 Mac. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die wretched KERNES,] The word "kernes" seems here used with greater licence than usual, as mercenaries. See Vol. v. p. 161. $ Seems BRUITED.] i. e. Noised or reported. See Vol. vi. p. 584. |