[110]
Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death?
There, take thou that. (He strikes him.)[1]
- ↑ K. Richard, Act iv. Sc. 4.
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,
Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
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
