Erudite types required (non-boaty)

[Twister_Ken]

Madame, who is not a native of the sceptic isle, has just received words of encouragement from her employer, viz "Carry on, McDuff". This perplexed her more than somewhat as it is a figure of speech with which she was unfamiliar until a few moments ago. I was able to give her reassurance, but wondered where it comes from. I don't recall it from the Scottish play. The Goons?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[jhr]

"Lay on, Macduff, and damned be he that first cries 'hold,enough'" (or something like that - strangely, I haven't got my Complete Shakespeare at my side)

Yes, it's the Scottish Play - M*cb*th's taunt to Macduff as they begin the final showdown, after Burnham Wood has come to Dunsinane.

Regards,

Erudite git, BA (Hons), English and American Literature

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[cynthia]

This is probably totally wrong as it is from memory, but I think it is the Scottish play and the real quote is 'Lay on McDuff' in one of the battle scenes. I am seriously staggered to discover that when we moved I threw out all the quotations books - how the heck have I been completing the crosswords all these months?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Mirelle]

Correct

another erudite git with similar academic qualifications, but I think it is in blank verse....

ACT V SCENE VIII. Another part of the field.

Enter MACBETH
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.

Enter MACDUFF

MACDUFF
Turn, hell-hound, turn!

MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.

MACDUFF
I have no words:
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

They fight

MACBETH
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.

MACDUFF
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

MACBETH
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.

MACDUFF
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.'

MACBETH
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'

Exeunt, fighting. Alarums

At this particular point in his career, WS was making a point of ending scenes with a couplet. Bit irritating, but there we are.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Correct

>WS was making a point of ending scenes with a couplet<

Rather like military bands which mark the last bar of a tune with a double beat on the bass drum.

Lay on Macduff, it comes back to me from O'level Eglish.

But Carry on Macduff?

Maybe one of those 'witty quips' from military types?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Mirelle]

Incorrect

I think it is a simple misquote, by someone with NO EAR FOR VERSE!

"....Lay ON / macDUFF
and DAMn'd/ be HE/ who FIRST/ cries HOLD/ enOUGH"

Iambic pentameter.



<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Romeo]

Re: Correct

vision of sid james in a kilt and big tartan tammy.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Correct

Sort of "Carry on up the Khyber, Macduff"?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[jhr]

Simple misquote

Agreed - though it's more common (albeit better scansion) to hear people say "lead on, Macduff". "Carry on Macduff" is then a logical further corruption.

I like the idea of Sid James et al let loose on M*cb*th: "Oooh Matron; mind what you're doing with that Claymore!" etc.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Metabarca]

Re: Simple misquote

and imagine Macbeth taking a butcher's at Claymore and saying "Never shake thy gory locks at me". Phew, even beat colregs for exciting reading!

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>

 

[jimi]

"Carry on MacDuff!" really ought to be analysed a bit more than this. A carry oot is to get a load of drink from an offie for the purpose of consumption outwith the confines of a boozer, ergo "carry on" being the opposite is obviously just staying in the pub. Mac is an old raincoat and duff is pregnant. So carry on MacDuff oviously means "I,m getting pissed in the pub wearing a old raincoat and hope to get you pregnant." Hope this helps.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Sounds like her boss is due for a good kicking!

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[jhr]

Absolutely

...and the three witches are obviously Jimi's Harridae, demanding right of way for their cauldron because they've got a spell in progress.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

A light dawns

Cauldron = holding tank? Could it be, d'ya suppose, that Jimi is plotting to seize the crown by dastardly deed in the dungeon-dark dead of night?

Out, damned yacht! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my
lord, fie! a sailor, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?--Yet who would have thought the holding tank
to have had so much cess in him.

The thane of Fife had a many a cutter: where are they now?--
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with
this starting of Volvos and Yanmars

Here's the smell of the cess still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
tank. Oh, oh, oh!


<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[jimi]

Re: A light dawns

I was just thinking .. next time I go for a medical , do you think I should send a sample from my holding tank for analysis instead of the usual?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[jhr]

All is now clear

Shakespeare was obviously not only a Man Ahead of His Time but a yottie as well.

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time..."

is obviously a reference to the frustrations of missing the tidal gate at the Needles and its subsequent effect on ETA at Poole.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: A light dawns

Not unless you want to be quarantined as a pubic health hazard.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[peterb]

Freudian slip?

If so, it's a good one.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[claymore]

Whoaaa

Much as I considered Hattie Jaques one of the more seductive persona in the whole Carry On genre - I have to say here and now that she never touched me. I mean - its not something I'm likely to forget - is it?

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[claymore]

Re: Simple misquote

Why - you fried egg of treachery - with apologies to Mirelle and all the rest of you araldites and Willie the Shake -

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
/forums/images/icons/smile.gif