UNDERSTANDING “THE ROOKY WOOD”. Empson (on page 81 to 82) gives an example of the way that the Arden editors focused on choosing one meaning for a word and rejected all other suggestions by other scholars. The example is the word “rooky” from this passage from MacBeth:
“…Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood”
Here is the commentary on “rooky”, from which I have omitted the citations to scholars:
“This somewhat obscure epithet, however spelt (and it should be spelt “rouky”), does NOT mean ‘murky’ or ‘dusky’ [citation]; NOR ‘damp,’ ‘misty,’ ‘steamy with exhalations’ [citation]; NOR ‘misty,’ gloomy’ [citation]; NOR ‘where its fellows are already assembled’ [citation], and has NOTHING to do with the dialectic word ‘roke’ meaning ‘mist,’ ‘steam,’ etc….the meaning here…I THINK, is simply the ‘rouking’ or perching wood, i. e., where the rook (or crow) perches for the night.”
Empson says: “So it is assumed that Shakespeare can only have meant one thing…”
I wonder whether Shakespeare was also alluding to the meaning of ‘rook’ as in ‘to rook someone’ is to defraud them. So he is alluding to a fraudulent wood, which is what happens when the wood comes to Dunsinane?