L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. L. Macd. Every one that does so, is a traitor, and must be hanged. Son. And must they all be hanged, that swear and lie? L. Macd. Every one. Son. Who must hang them? L. Macd. Why, the honest men. Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools; for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men, and hang up them. L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father? Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him; if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st! Enter a Messenger. Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honor I am perfect 1 I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly: you will take a homely man's advice, If Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! L. Macd. Whither should I fly? To say, I have done no harm?What are these faces? 1 i. e. I am perfectly acquainted with your rank. Enter Murderers. Mur. Where is your husband? L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou may'st find him. He's a traitor. Mur. Mur. What, you egg! [Stabbing him. Young fry of treachery! Son. Run away, I pray you. He has killed me, mother; [Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying murder, SCENE III. England. A Room in the King's Palace. Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF.2 Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Let us rather Macd. As if it felt with Scotland, and yelled out Mal. What I believe, I'll wail; What know, believe; and, what I can redress, 1 "Shag-eared villain." It has been suggested that we should read shag-haired, an abusive epithet frequent in our old plays. Hair being formerly spelled heare, the corruption would easily arise. 2 This scene is almost literally taken from Holinshed's Chronicle, which is in this part an abridgment of the chronicle of Hector Boece, as translated by John Bellenden. From the recent reprints of both the Scottish and English chroniclers, quotations from them become the less necessary; they are now accessible to the reader curious in tracing the Poet to his sources of information. 3 i. e. befriend. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance. This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, You may deserve of him through me; and wisdom To appease an angry god. Macd. I am not treacherous. Mal. But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil, 2 In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon ; That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell: Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so.3 Macd. I have lost my hopes. Mal. Perchance, even there, where I did find my doubts. Why in that rawness left you wife and child, (Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,) Without leave-taking?-I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonors, But mine own safeties.-You may be rightly just, Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dares not check thee!-Wear thou thy wrongs ; 1 "You may deserve of him through me.” The old copy reads discerne. The emendation was made by Theobald. In the subsequent part of the line something is wanted to complete the sense. There is no verb to which wisdom can refer. Steevens conjectured that the line might originally have run thus: You may deserve through me; and wisdom is it To offer," &c. 2 A good mind may recede from goodness in the execution of a royal commission. 3 "Virtue must wear its proper form, though that form be counterfeited by villany." Thy title is affeered!'-Fare thee well, lord. Mal. Be not offended; I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. Macd. What should he be? Mal. It is myself I mean; in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted, That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compared With my confineless harms." Macd. Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damned Mal. Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name. But there's no bottom, none, All continent impediments would o'erbear, 1 To affeer is a law term, signifying to assess or reduce to certainty. 2 i. e. immeasurable evils. 3 Luxurious, lascivious. 4 Sudden, passionate. Macd. Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny; it hath been As will to greatness dedicate themselves, Mal. Macd. This avarice Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root Of 2 Mal. But I have none. The king-becoming graces, 1 Sir W. Blackstone proposed to read summer-seeding, which was adopted by Steevens; but the meaning of the epithet may be, "lust as hot as summer." In Donne's Poems, Malone has pointed out its oppositewinter-seeming. 2 Foysons, plenty. 3 Portable answers to a phrase now in use. borne with, or are bearable. Such failings may be |