----- Original Message -----
From: "Tamara P. Duvall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> On Mar 3, 2005, at 19:42, Linda Walton wrote, in response to Bev's:
>
> >> My mother used to hurry us along by saying 'get going, Mac Duff' - I
> >> always wondered who Mac Duff was
>
> > MacBeth believes that he is
> > invulnerable and yells, "Lay on, MacDuff, [...]
>
> DH will sometimes - jocularly - say: "carry on, Mac Duff", when
> allowing someone to expound on what he considers to be an outrageous
> idea/proposition ("have all the rope you want dear" kind of thing <g>).
> (snip)
> It is also not so very far - *in meaning* - from the original "lay on",
> it seems to me. "Lay on" as used by Shakespeare not being commonly used
> in the 19th and 20th century, the substitution seems reasonable.
> (snip)
The meaning of "lay on" in the Shakespeare text is similar to "lay down",
"put on to a place". (Does "Romeo and Juliet open with "In fair Verona
where we lay our scene . . . "? - Still can't get at my Complete
Shakespeare.) It also has the extra connotation of 'do it with enthusiasm'
or 'lay it on thick' - 'show off just how much you can do - I can take it'.
But I do remember that the fight happens intermittently, with pauses for
conversation, and with the actors going off-stage and coming back on, so
maybe this has been seen as "Lay on MacDuff . . . exit the actors" giving
the impression of it meaning "Lead on . . . ".
Linda Walton,
(in icy-snowy High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, U.K.,
harassed by a fretful husband who can't get to work).
(Whatever will I do when he retires!)
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