126 THE RAVEN IN POETRY AND FOLK-LORE 



In the "players' scene" in Hamlet, just before the 

 poison is dropped into the sleeper's ear, in the 

 presence of the guilty King and Queen, the Prince 

 of Denmark, who is watching the " galled jade 

 wince," while his own "withers are unwrung," 

 exclaims in triumph, not yet understood by the 

 King : 



"The croaking raven 

 Doth bellow for revenge." 



And, in a still more appalling scene, Lady Macbeth, 

 who has just heard of the prediction of the three 

 weird sisters, and is making up her man's mind to 

 fulfil them herself, exclaims when she hears of the 

 unlooked-for approach of the King of Scotland : 



u The raven himself is hoarse, 

 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 

 Under my battlements." 



So with Othello ; struggling in the toils set for 

 him by the arch-fiend lago, and asked whether he 

 remembers the handkerchief given by him to 

 Desdemona, he exclaims in agony : 



" O, it comes o'er my memory 

 As doth the raven o'er the infected house, 

 Boding to all." 



When England is in the depth of degradation 



