SON. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and
swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them.
LADY MACDUFF. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do
for a father?
SON. If he were dead, you'ld weep for him; if you would not, it
were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.
LADY MACDUFF. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st!
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,
Though in your state of honor I am perfect.
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.
If you will take a
homely man's advice,
Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
To
fright you thus,
methinks I am too savage;
To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
Which is too nigh your person. Heaven
preserve you!
I dare abide no longer. Exit.
LADY MACDUFF. Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm. But I remember now
I am in this
earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
Do I put up that womanly defense,
To say I have done no harm -What are these faces?
Enter Murtherers.
FIRST MURTHERER. Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF. I hope, in no place so unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.
FIRST MURTHERER. He's a traitor.
SON. Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd
villain!
FIRST MURTHERER. What, you egg!
Stabs him.
Young fry of treachery!
SON. He has kill'd me, Mother.
Run away, I pray you! Dies.
Exit Lady Macduff, crying "Murther!"
Exeunt Murtherers, following her.
SCENE III.
England. Before the King's palace.
Enter Malcolm and Macduff.
MALCOLM. Let us seek out some
desolate shade and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF. Let us rather
Hold fast the
mortal sword, and like good men
Bestride our downfall'n birthdom. Each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out
Like
syllable of dolor.
MALCOLM. What I believe, I'll wall;
What know, believe; and what I can redress,
As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
What you have spoke, it may be so
perchance.
This
tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest. You have loved him well;
He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young, but something
You may
deserve of him through me, and
wisdomTo offer up a weak, poor,
innocent lamb
To
appease an angry god.
MACDUFF. I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM. But Macbeth is.
A good and
virtuous nature may recoil
In an
imperialcharge. 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.
MACDUFF. I have lost my hopes.
MALCOLM. 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,
Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF. Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great
tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For
goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs;
The title is affeer'd. Fare thee well, lord.
I would not be the
villain that thou think'st
For the whole space that's in the
tyrant's grasp
And the rich East to boot.
MALCOLM. Be not offended;
I speak not as in
absolute fear of you.
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds. I think withal
There would be hands uplifted in my right;
And here from
gracious England have I offer
Of
goodly thousands. But for all this,
When I shall tread upon the
tyrant's head,
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
Shall have more vices than it had before,
More suffer and more
sundry ways than ever,
By him that shall succeed.
MACDUFF. What should he be?
MALCOLM. It is myself I mean, in whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
With my confineless harms.
MACDUFF. Not in the legions
Of
horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd
In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLM. I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden,
malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name. But there's no bottom, none,
In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up
The cestern of my lust, and my desire
All
continent impediments would o'erbear
That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF. Boundless in
temperanceIn nature is a
tyranny; it hath been
The
untimely emptying of the happy throne,
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
To take upon you what is yours. You may
Convey your pleasures in a
spacious plenty
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.
We have
willing dames enough; there cannot be
That vulture in you to
devour so many
As will to
greatnessdedicate themselves,
Finding it so inclined.
MALCOLM. With this there grows
In my most ill-composed
affection such
A stanchless
avarice that, were I King,
I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
Desire his jewels and this other's house,
And my more-having would be as a sauce
To make me
hunger more, that I should forge
Quarrels
unjust against the good and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.
MACDUFF. This
avariceSticks deeper, grows with more
pernicious root
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been
The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear;
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will
Of your mere own. All these are portable,
With other graces weigh'd.
MALCOLM. But I have none. The king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity,
temperance, stableness,
Bounty,
perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion,
patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no
relish of them, but abound
In the division of each several crime,
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of
concord into hell,
Uproar the
universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.
MACDUFF. O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM. If such a one be fit to
govern, speak.
I am as I have spoken.
MACDUFF. Fit to
govern?
No, not to live. O nation miserable!
With an untitled
tyrant bloody-scepter'd,
When shalt thou see thy
wholesome days again,
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accursed
And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king; the queen that bore thee,
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast,
Thy hope ends here!
MALCOLM. Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of
integrity, hath from my soul
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power, and
modestwisdom plucks me
From over-credulous haste. But God above
Deal between thee and me! For even now
I put myself to thy direction and
Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure
The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
For strangers to my nature. I am yet
Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
At no time broke my faith, would not betray
The devil to his fellow, and delight
No less in truth than life. My first false speaking
Was this upon myself. What I am truly
Is thine and my poor country's to command.
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand
warlike men
Already at a point, was
setting forth.
Now we'll together, and the chance of
goodnessBe like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?
MACDUFF. Such
welcome and un
welcome things at once
'Tis hard to reconcile.
Enter a Doctor.
MALCOLM. Well, more anon. Comes the King forth, I pray you?
DOCTOR. Ay, sir, there are a crew of
wretched souls
That stay his cure. Their
malady convinces
The great assay of art, but at his touch,
Such
sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
They
presently amend.