I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, Hail, king of Scotland! All. Hail, king of Scotland ! [Flourish 60 Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time, And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen, [Flourish. Exeunt. NOTES. (The text of Macbeth is in many places corrupt; and conjecture has to be resorted to.) ABBREVIATIONS.-O. E. Old English; H. Ger. High German; L. Ger. = Low German (English); N. Fr. = Norman-French; Gr. Greek; Lat. = Latin ; Dim. = diminutive; Cogs. cognates; Cf. (= confer), compare. In the naming of plays, short titles have been used. Thus the Taming of the Shrew is mentioned as The Shrew; All's Well that Ends Well as All's Well; Troilus and Cressida as Troilus. SCENE 1. ACT FIRST. 1. Witch (the feminine of wizard) is said to come from a Gothic word, veiks, holy or apart. The oldest form of the word in English is vicca. 3. Hurlyburly. We find this word also speare uses the word hurly by 'That, with the hurly, death The word is an onomatopoetic others. 5. Set. Shakespeare has, in Henry V., IV. i. 289, the phrase, 'from rise to set.' 8. Graymalkin, gray cat. Malkin is a dim. of Mall (Molly), which is itself a dim. of Mary. Shakespeare uses the term Malkin as a synonym for a kitchen-wench. In not uncommon. Cf. abbreviare and abridge; assuaviare (Low Lat.) and assuage. The form serjeant is generally retained for the law-officer. 6. Broil. From the Fr. brouiller. The Italian form is imbroglio; and we use it also. 7. Doubtful it stood. This line wants a syllable. Pope supplied long. 9. Choke their art, make their skill useless. We still have the phrase, 'to choke off importunity.' Cf. Timon of Athens, V. ii. 16: 'Fearful scouring doth choke the air with dust; and Love's Labour Lost, V. ii. 868: 'That's the way to choke a gibing spirit.' 10. To that end or result. 13. Is supplied. ... of. In Shakespeare's time we find such phrases as invested of, distinguish of (for from), etc. See Henry VI., Part II., IÍ. i. 129: Sight may distinguish of colours.' -Kernes, a Keltic (or perhaps only Irish) word-a footsoldier of the lowest and poorest rank, armed only with a dart or a dagger.- -Gallowglasses wore helmets and coats of mail, and were armed with a long sword and an axe. In Henry, VI., Part II., IV. ix. 26, Shakespeare again brings the two words together. 17. Smok'd. Cf. Richard III. I. ii. 94: Thy falchion smoking in his blood.'- -Executïon, five syllables. 18. Minion, darling. From the Fr. mignon, which itself, however, comes from the Ger. minne, which is itself from the same root as man. See II. iv. 15, where Duncan's horses are called 'the minions of their race.' It is most frequently used by Shakespeare as a term of contempt pert and saucy person. 21. Till. In this and the next line there is some corruption. 21. He. him. Macbeth unseamed Sooth, truth. Chaucer has frequently in soth and sothly; and Shakespeare has such phrases as: Silly sooth (for simple truth); to say the sooth; sooth to say; in good sooth; very sooth; and others. Cog.: Soothsayer. Macdonald.Unseam'd, ripped 36. Cracks, charges. The word crack up the cartilage with which the ribs are bound together.-Nave, navel. Chaps, chops or jaws. Cf. Henry VI., Part II., III. i. 259: Before his chaps be stained with crimson blood.' 23. Cousin, not used in the ceremonious sense, but literally. Duncan and had a much weightier meaning in Shakespeare's time (cf. the diminution of meaning in smart, which often meant severe pain). Thus we have the thunder's crack; the crack of doom; and, in Antony, V. i. 15, Cæsar, speaking of the death of Antony, says: 'The breaking of so great a thing | 41. should make A greater crack. And Addison, who lived in the eighteenth century, wrote: 'Should the whole frame of nature round him break, He unconcerned would hear the mighty crack.' And the verb crack is frequently used by Shakespeare with this stronger meaning; as in: 'Though all the world should crack their duty' (Henry VIII., III. ii. 193); 42. So well, as well. 'Heart! once be stronger than thy 43. continent, Crack thy frail case!' our (Antony, IV. xiv. 40); 'crack their word and oath; my heart is ready to crack;' crack the strong warrant of an oath;' and 'his shipping cracked against rocks' (Cymbeline, III. i. 28). 38. Reeking, smoking. See line 17 above. Reek is an O. E. word, which meant smoke or vapour. The H. Ger. form is rauch; the old Norsk form, reykja. Hence the capital of Iceland is called Rejkjavik Smoky Town; and the Scotch call Edinburgh Auld Reekie. Cf. Julius Cæsar, III. i. 158: Whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke;' and King Lear, II. iv. 30: A reeking post for a messenger smoking or reeking with perspiration.' 39. Memorise, make memorable or famous, give to fame. The word is only Shall here inhabit, and this land The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls.' 44. 45. Gashes, deep and wide wounds. See 'All of her that is out of door most If she be furnished with a mind so rare !' And we have the phrases: So long as; so much as; so sure as this beard's gray; twenty times so Smack of, have a taste of. In Shakemuch; and many others. speare's time smack had a more 'elegant' meaning than it has now. Cf. Winter's Tale, IV. iv. 158: 'Nothing she does or seems But smacks of something greater than herself.' Him, the dative. Thane, a servant or boy, then an inferior title of nobility. The next highest title was earl or ealdorman. The O. E. was þegen, which is just like the H. Ger. degen, which used to mean a man, but now a sword. (The word is akin to the Gr. tek-non, a child.) Looks through. Cf. Henry IV., Part II., IV. iv. 118-120: 'The incessant care and labour of Hath wrought the mure (wall) And Hamlet, IV. vii. 152: And Antony, V. i. 50: 'The business of this man looks out of him.' 46. That seems = whose appearance accords with the strangeness of the news he brings. The participle is more often used by Shakespeare in this sense. Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, III. ii. 212: 'With two seeming bodies, but one heart.' And Shakespeare has the noun frequently in the sense of appearance, as in Cymbeline, V. v. 65: I thought her like her seeming.' 50. Flout, mock. Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, V. iv. 102: A college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour.' It seems to be a cognate of flute. 55. Till that. Cf. The that here is a mere enclitic, and has no force. Chaucer has when that, if that, etc.; and Shakespeare has for that (IV. iii. 178), since that, though that, before that. As is used in the same way by Shakespeare; and we have when as as well as whereas.-Bellona's bridegroom. Shakespeare's Bellona was the wife of Mars.-Lapp'd in proof, dressed in armour of proof. Passionate Pilgrim, 396: 'King Pandion, he is dead; All thy friends are lapp'd in lead.' And Richard III., II. i. 115: 'He did lap me in his own garments.' Shakespeare has the phrases armed to the proof, armed in proof, a coat of proof, Mars' armour forged for proof eterne (Hamlet, II. ii. 512). He also uses proof as an adjective, as in Coriolanus, I. iv. 25: Hearts more proof than shields;' and in Hamlet, III. iv. 38: Your heart is proof and bulwark against sense; and we also find the compounds ague-proof, pistol-proof, plot-proof, and shame-proof. Keats has, in Hyperion, branched elms star-proof.' 56. Confronted him, met him in personal conflict. 61. 'An universal shout That Tiber trembled underneath her banks.' Craves, begs. Composition, an arrangement or treaty. Chaucer uses it as equal to agreement, and couples it with the old word forward (= foreword, something previously agreed on): 'By forward and by composicïoun.' Cf. Measure for Measure, I. ii, 2: 'If the duke come not to composition with the Duke of Hungary.' 62. Deign, condescend to grant. It also means in Shakespeare to condescend to take, as in Antony, I. iv. 63: Thy palate then did deign the roughest berry.'-Him, the dative. 63. Disbursed, paid out of his bourse or purse. The form dispurse also occurs once, in Henry VI., Part II., III. i. 117. Shakespeare uses the prefix dis with great freedom. He has disbench, disbranch (to pull off the tree), discase (to undress), discourtesy (unkindness), disedge (to take the edge off the appetite), disfurnish (to deprive of means), dishabit (to dislodge), dishorn (to strip of horns), disliken (to make unlike), dislimn (to efface), disorbed (unsphered), dispark (to pull down the inclosures of a park), dispunge (to pour down as from a sponge), dispraise (to blame), disprize (to undervalue), disquantity (diminish, in King Lear, I. iv. 270), disrelish (to loathe), disunite (to divide), disvouch (to contradict),* etc. 63. Inch, the Keltic word for island. In Ireland it appears in the form of Ennis, as in Enniskillen; in Wales as Yuys, as in Ynys-gwely; and in Gaelic as Innis.-Saint Colm was Saint Columba, who is said to have resided there in the sixth century.--The island is now called Inchcolm (there are still ruins of a monastery on it), and it lies in the Firth of Forth, not far from Edinburgh. * In asking for these words, the teacher ought to give the modern equivalents, and to get Shakespeare's terms. |