1 64 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



The witches' caldron in Macbeth contained, 

 amongst other ingredients, 



' Gall of goat, and slips of yew 

 Slivered in the moon's eclipse.' 1 



I have heard 'slivered,' meaning 'split off,' 

 rendered * silvered ' on the stage an obvious mis- 

 reading. 



Compare the passage in Hamlet 2 where Ophelia 

 is drowned : 



* There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds, 

 Clambering to hang an envious sliver broke ; 

 When down her weedy trophies and herself, 

 Fell in the weeping brook.' 



In Romeo and Juliet? Paris says to the Page : 



' Give me thy torch, boy . . . 

 Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along ; 

 So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, 

 (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,) 

 But thou shalt hear it.' 



And later, in the same scene, Balthazar to Friar 

 Laurence : 



' As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, 

 I dreamt my master and another fought, 

 And that my master slew him.' 



In Titus Andronicus^ Tamora is made to ex- 

 claim : . 



4 But straight they told me they would bind me here 

 Unto the body of a dismal yew.' 



1 Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. I. 2 Act iv. Sc. 7. 



3 Act v. Sc. 3. 4 Act ii. Sc. 3. 



