HINT PROM SHAKESPEARE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2259, 19 September 1914, Page 8

HINT PROM SHAKESPEARE

A MOVING WOOD. [BY SriiVius.] -Paris, September IJ. ' In the forest of Crecy tho French force out the trees down, and line after lino of infantry, each man armed with a thickly-follaged branch, moved towards tho enemy, while behind, amid the lopped tree trunks, thirtccn-poundors were posted for the purpose of covering the slow-mov-ing forest. The qiiick and fierce attack which followed proved a great success The walking forest snarled flame and spat bullete, while overhead tho eholls of tho French and British artillery sped screaming to. their mark. By tho evening the Marno was. clear of tho enemy.

The above- cable message, which appeared in The Dominion- a few days ngo, almost induces one to believe that tlio Commander of • the French force engaged must have, benefited by his knowledge of 'Shnkespcnre, and niusinc on this possibility, it is.curious to contemplate how closely akin is the character of the Kaiser to Macbeth, whose "vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself," and murderous practices so sigu>o.ll?: lod to his utter and comuleto

downfall and death. The wonderful Crecy incident, described above, is precisely a repetition, of the advance of Macduff and his English aids on tho castle of Macbeth. Macbeth, not altogether unlike William Hohenzollorn was superstitious, and on more thai one occasion evinced a'desire to peer t! ° ? 1 1 V utjre a u ,d there read his fate. It will be remembered by Sbakespeareans that on one occasion when visitina those "secret, black, 'and midnight hags commonly known as the witches, Macbeth is treated to quite an imposi ing array of apparitions, each of which has something to say bearing on what is to happen thereafter. It is the third apparition, a child crowned, with a tree in his hand), which says:— • "Bβ lion-mottled, proud, and take no care . . . Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until GTeat Birnam wood to high Dunsin. ane hill . Shall come against him." Later, when seated in a chamber in his castle at Duhsinane, when, through' his murderous excesses, he is all but deserted in his extremity Cfor Macduff is then pressing him hard), Macbeth, says:— ' "Bring me no more reports j let them fly all: . . ■ . ■ Till Birnani wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with feai.". Again, in the same scene', his superstitious belief is emphasised in a Conversation with his doctor, when the Murderous King says:— "What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug . • • . Wouid scour these English hence? Hearst thou of them?" Doctor: "Aye, my good lord; your royal preparationMakes us hear .something." . Macbeth: "Bring it alter me. I will not. be airaid of death and bane ■- ■ ■ . , Till Birnam wood come to Dunsinaoie." Then it is that the forces of Macduff, Ross, Siward, and otters' assemble in, tie wood of Birnam, and cut dowu branches' with which to conceal their approach to the castle of Macbeth, and in such order, are they seen .by one of the watch on the castle, who, rushing into tho presence of the distraught Mao- ■ beth, says:— "As 1 did Stand my. watch upon ' the hill, I looked towards Birnam, and, , anon,--methought, The'wood oegan to move!" Macbeth: "Liar and slave!" Messenger: "Let me endure your wrath! ift be not' so: .. ■ Within this three mile you may 6eo it coming; .' . I say, a moving grove!" ' On hearing this, Macbeth, 6centing the end of all. things, decides at least "to die with harness on his back," an example that may possibly be copied by the Raiser. It was' the English that Macbeth dreaded and hated. Tnat comes out in his agonised appeal to the doetor when he asks ''what purgative drug would scour these English henco,"'and it is the English towards whom the over-ambitious Kaiser, and his murder-' ing armies (destroying the unconcerned and innocent as Macbeth murdered Macduff and "all his chicks at one fell swoop") bear the most intone© animosity. It is most interesting to note that the approach of the avengers on Macbeth's castle and the approach, of the French forces'on tho German position on tho Ma me were aliko successful, and, in the former case at al ; jvents, proved to be the - beginning o' ihe end.-