Borrowing from the Bard?

[Randy]

We recently purchased a Cambridge edition of an 1896 publication of Shakespeare's Macbeth at a local library booksale.

Reading Act II, Scene IV, we came upon the following lines:

Old Man: Threescore and ten I can remember well:
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.

The words "Threescore and ten" stuck out. The similarity to "Fourscore and seven years ago" from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address came to mind. We recalled reading that Shakespeare was a favorite of Lincoln's, particularly Hamlet and Macbeth.

Looking online to see if anyone else had made this connection we came across the following article:

The Memorable Monosyllables of Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address” - Patch
https://patch.com/connecticut/.../the-me...tysburg...

Although the article has interesting information, we did not see a reference to the particular line found in Macbeth.

We wanted to share this information with Lincoln scholars who might be interested or have their thoughts on the subject.