Page:Macbethandkingr00kembgoog.djvu/125

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

[110]

Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death?
There, take thou that. (He strikes him.)[1]


    the officer who brings him this unwelcome news: An observation respecting an error that has crept into the margin of the play of Macbeth, may not, perhaps, be thought improperly introduced here.

    [The nonsensical change of the original should into shall, in the Messenger's speech, must be accidental: Mr. Steevens could not intend it.] Macb. 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 it. Macb. 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 move.

    Macb. Liar and slave! (Striking him.)

    Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5.

    This stage-direction is not found in any of the Folios, the oldest copies of this tragedy: it was

  1. K. Richard, Act iv. Sc. 4.