The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, Enter a Servant. -The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon! Macb. Geese, villain? Ser. Soldiers, sir. Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, This push sick at heart, Enter SEYΤΟΝ. Sey. What is your gracious pleasure? Mach. What news more? Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. Give me my armour. Sey. 'Tis not needed yet. Ic men, were willing inough to receive this Donald for their king, trusting (because he had beene brought up in the Isles with the old customes and manners of their antient nations, without tast of English likerous delicats,) they should by his seuere order in gouernement recouer againe the former tem perance of their old progenitors." The same historian informs us, that in those ages the Scots eat bur once a day, and even then very sparingly. appears from Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that the natives had neither kail nor brogues, till they were taught the art of planting the one, and making the other, by the soldiers of Cromwell. STEEV. [7] To sag, or swag, is to sink down by its own weight, or by an overload. It is common in Staffordshire to say, "a beam in a building sags, or has sagzed." TOLLET. [8] The meaning is, they infect others who see them, with cowardice. WARR ACT V. Macb. I'll put it on. MACBETH. Send out more horses, skirr the country round; How does your patient, doctor? Doc. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Must minister to himself. Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it.Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff :Seyton, send out. - Doctor, the thanes fly from me :Come, sir, despatch :-If thou could'st, doctor, cast The water of my land, 2 find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence ?-Hearest thou of them? Doc. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. [Exit. Doc. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt. [1] To skirr, I believe, signifies to scour, to ride hastily. STEEV. [2] To cast the water was the phrase in use for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine. STEEVENS. SCENE IV. Gountry near Dunsinane. A Wood in view. Enter, with Drum Mal. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand, Ment. We doubt it nothing. Siw. What wood is this before us? Ment. The wood of Birnam. Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, Sold. It shall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, Macd. Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Siw. The time approaches, Towards which, advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; [3] Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakspeare, signified opportunity. He shut up himself and his soldiers (says Malcolm) in the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone, they all desert him. JOHNS. [4] To owe here is to possess. STEEV. 1 Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, [A cry within, of Women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Told by an ideot, full of sound and fury, Enter a Messenger. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. Mes. Gracious my lord, I shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. Macb. Well, say, sir. Mes. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. Macb. Liar, and slave ! [Striking him. Mes. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming; [5] Recorded time seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. JOHNS. [6] The dust of death is an expression used in the 22d Psalm. STEEV. 1 I say, a moving grove. Macb. If thou speak'st false, To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, And wish the estate o'the world were now undone.- The same. A Plain before the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down, And show like those you are:-You, worthy uncle, Siw. Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. Alarums continued. [7] Clung, in the Northern counties, signifies any thing that is shrivelled, or shrunk up. To cling likewise signifies, to gripe, to compress, to embrace. STEEV. |